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TUFTS    UNIVERSITY    LIBRARIES 


Webster  Family  Library  of  Veterinary  Medicine 
Cummings  School  of  Veterinary  Medicine  at 
Tufts  University 
200  Westboro  Road 
North  Grafton.  MA  01536 


THE  MULE. 


A    TREATISE 


BREEDING,  TEAINING,  AND  USES, 


TO   ■R-UICH 


HE   MAT  BE  PUT. 


HARYEY   RILEY, 

6UPKEINTENDENT   OF   THE   GOVEENMEXT   COUKAL,    WASUINGTON,    P. 


WASHINGTON : 

FRENCH   &   RICHARDSON, 

334  Pennsylvania  Avenue. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1867, 

By   dick   «fe    FITZGERALD, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  th(-  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 

Southern  District  of  New  York. 


PEEFAOE. 

There  is  no  more  useful  or  willing  animal  than  the 
Mule.  And  perhaps  there  is  no  other  animal  so  much 
abused,  or  so  little  cared  for.  Popular  opinion  of  his 
nature  has  not  been  favorable ;  and  he  has  had  to  plod 
and  work  through  life  against  the  prejudices  of  the 
ignorant.  Still,  he  has  been  the  great  friend  of  man, 
in  war  and  in  peace  serving  him  well  and  faithfully. 
If  he  could  tell  man  what  he  most  needed  it  would  be 
kind  treatment.  We  all  know  how  much  can  be  done 
to  improve  the  condition  and  advance  the  comfort  of 
this  animal ;  and  he  is  a  true  friend  of  humanity  who 
does  what  he  can  for  his  benefit.  My  object  in 
writing  this  book  was  to  do  what  I  could  toward  work- 
ing out  a  much  needed  reform  in  the  breeding,  care,  and 
treatment  of  these  animals.  Let  Tne  ask  that  what  I 
have  said  in  regard  to  the  value  of  kind  treatment  be 
carefully  read  and  followed.  I  have  had  thirty  years' 
experience  in  the  use  of  this  animal,  and  during  that 


4:  PREFACE. 

time  have  made  his  nature  a  study.  The  result  of  that 
study  is,  that  humanity  as  well  as  economy  will  be  best 
served  by  kindness. 

It  has  indeed  seemed  to  me  that  the  Government 
might  make  a  great  saving  every  year  by  employing 
only  such  teamsters  and  wagon-masters  as  had  been 
thoroughly  instructed  in  the  treatment  and  management 
of  animals,  and  were  in  every  way  qualified  to  perform 
their  duties  properly.  Indeed,  it  would  seem  only  rea- 
sonable not  to  trust  a  man  with  a  valuable  team  of 
animals,  or  perhaps  a  train,  until  he  had  been  thoroughly 
instructed  in  their  use,  and  had  received  a  certificate  of 
capacity  from  the  Quartermaster's  Department.  If  this 
were  done,  it  would  go  far  to  establish  a  system  that 
would  check  that  great  destruction  of  animal  life  which 
costs  the  Government  so  heavy  a  sum  every  year. 

H.  K. 

Washington,  D.  C,  April  12,  1867, 


CONTENTS. 


Pagb 

Best  Metliod  of  Breaking 9 

Value  of  Kind  Treatment 11 

How  to  Harness 15 

Injured  by  Working  too  Young 18 

What  the  Mule  can  Endure 20 

Color  and  Peculiar  Habits 24 

Mexican  Mules,  and  Packing 29 

The  Agricultural  Committee 36 

Working  Condition  of  Mules 41 

Spotted  Mules 42 

Mule-Breeding  and  Raising 44 

How  Colts  should  be  Handled 45 

Packing  Mules 48. 

Physical  Constitution 54 

Value  of  Harnessing  Properly 56 

Government  Wagons 62 

More  about  Breeding  Mules 66 

Ancient  History  of  the  Mule 69 

Table  of  Statistics 71 

14  Portraits  of  Celebrated  Mules T2 

Diseases  Common  to  the  Mule,  and  how  they  Should  be  treated 80 


l^OTE. 

I  HAVE,  in  another  part  of  this  work,  spoken  of  the  mule  as  being  free 
from  splint.  Perhaps  I  should  have  said  that  I  had  never  seen  one  that 
had  it,  notwithstanding  the  number  I  have  had  to  do  with.  There  are, 
I  know,  persons  who  assert  that  they  have  seen  mules  that  had  it.  I 
ought  to  mention  here,  also,  by  way  of  correction,  that  there  ia  another 
ailment  the  mule  does  not  have  in  common  with  the  horse,  and  that  ia 
quarter-crack.  The  same  cause  that  keeps  them  from  having  quarter- 
crack  preserves  them  from  splint — the  want  of  front  action. 
*  A  great  many  persons  insist  that  a  mule  has  no  marrow  in  the  bones 
of  his  legs.  This  is  a  very  singular  error.  The  bone  of  the  mule's  leg 
has  a  cavity,  and  is  as  weU  filled  with  marrow  as  the  horse's.  It  also 
varies  in  just  the  same  proportion  as  in  the  horse's  leg.  The  feet  of 
some  mules,  however,  will  crack  and  spht,  but  in  most  cases  it  is  the 
result  of  bad  shoeing.  It  at  times  occurs  from  a  lack  of  moisture  to 
the  foot ;  and  is  seen  among  mules  used  in  cities,  where  there  are  no 
facilities  for  driving  them  into  running  water  every  day,  to  soften  tlie 
feet  and  keep  them  moist. 


CHAPTEE    I. 


HOW   MTLES    SHOULD   BE   TREATED  IN   BEEAKmG.      - 

I  HAVE  long  had  it  in  contemplation  to  write  some- 
thing concerning  the  mule,  in  the  hope  that  it  might  be 
of  benefit  to  those  who  had  to  deal  with  him,  as  well 
in  as  out  of  the  army,  and  make  them  better  acquainted 
with  his  habits  and  usefulness.  The  patient,  plodding 
mule  is  indeed  an  animal  that  has  served  us  well  in  the 
army,  and  done  a  great  amount  of  good  for  humanity 
during  the  late  war.  He  was  in  truth  a  necessity  to 
the  army  and  tlie  Government,  and  performed  a  most 
important  part  in  supplying  our  army  in  the  field.  That 
he  will  perform  an  equally  important  part  in  the  future 
movements  of  our  army  is  equally  clear,  and  should  not 
be  lost  sight  of  by  the  Government.  It  has  seemed  to 
me  somewhat  strange,  then,  that  so  little  should  have 
been  wTitten  concerning  him,  and  so  little  pains  taken 
to  improve  his  quality.  I  have  noticed  in  the  army 
that  those  who  had  most  to  do  with  him  were  the  least 
acquainted  with  his  habits,  and  J;ook  the  least  pains  to 
study  his  disposition,  or  to  ascertain  by  proper  means 
how  he  could  be  made  the  most  useful.  The  Govern- 
ment might  have  saved  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dol- 


8  THE   MULE. 

lars,  if,  when  the  war  began,  there  had  been  a  proper 
understanding  of  this  animal  among  its  employees. 

Probably  no  animal  has  been  the  subject  of  more 
cruel  and  brutal  treatment  than  the  mule,  and  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  no  animal  ever  performed  his  part  better, 
not  even  the  horse.  In  breaking  the  mule,  most  per- 
sons are  apt  to  get  out  of  patience  with  him.  I  have 
got  out  of  patience  with  him  myself.  But  patience  is 
the  great  essential  in  breaking,  and  in  the  use  of  it  you 
will  find  that  you  get  along  much  better.  The  mule 
is  an  unnatural  animal,  and  hence  more  timid  of  man 
than  the  horse  ;  and  yet  he  is  tractable,  and  capable  of 
being  taught  to  understand  what  you  want  him  to  do. 
And  when  he  understands  what  you  want,  and  has 
gained  your  confidence,  you  will,  if  you  treat  him 
kindly,  have  little  trouble  in  making  him  perform  his 
duty. 

In  commencing  to  break  the  mule,  take  hold  of  him 
gently,  and  talk  to  him  kindly.  Don't  spring  at  him, 
as  if  he  were  a  tiger  you  were  in  dread  of.  Don't  yell 
at  him  ;  don't  jerk  him  ;  don't  strike  him  with  a  club, 
as  is  too  often  done  ;  don't  get  excited  at  his  jumping 
and  kicking.  Approach  and  handle  him  the  same  as 
you  would  an  animal  already  broken,  and  through 
kindness  you  will,  in  less  than  a  week,  have  your  mule 
more  tractable,  better  broken,  and  kinder  than  you 
v/ould  in  a  month,  had  you  used  the  whip.  Mules, 
with  very  few  exceptions,  are  born  kickers.  Breed 
them  as  you  will,  the  moment  they  are  able  to  stand 
up,  and  you  put  your  hand  on  them,  they  will  kick.  It 
is,  indeed,  their  natural  means  of  defence,  and  they 


THE   MULE.  9 

resort  to  it  through  the  force  of  instinct.  In  com- 
mencing to  break  them,  then,  kicking  is  the  first  thing 
to  guard  against  and  overcome.  The  young  mule  kicks 
because  he  is  afraid  of  a  man.  He  has  seen  those  in- 
trusted with  their  care  beat  and  abuse  the  older  ones, 
and  he  very  naturally  fears  the  same  treatment  as  soon 
as  a  man  approaches  him.  Most  persons  intrusted  with 
the  care  of  these  young  and  green  mules  have  not  had 
experience  enough  with  them  to  know  that  this  defect 
of  kicking  is  soonest  remedied  by  kind  treatment. 
Careful  study  of  the  animal's  nature  and  long  experi- 
ence with  the  animal  have  taught  me  that,  in  breaking 
the  mule,  whipping  and  harsh  treatment  almost  invaria- 
bly make  him  a  worse  kicker.  They  certainly  make  him 
more  timid  and  afraid  of  you.  And  just  as  long  as  you 
fight  a  young  mule  and  keep  him  afraid  of  you,  just  so 
long  will  you  be  in  danger  of  his  kicking  you.  You 
must  convince  him  through  kindness  that  you  are  not 
going  to  hurt  or  punish  him.  And  the  sooner  you  do 
this,  the  sooner  you  are  out  of  danger  from  his  feet. 

It  may  at  times  become  necessary  to  correct  the  mule 
before  he  is  subdued  ;  but  before  doing  so  he  should  be 
well  bridle  or  halter-broken,  and  also  ased  to  harness. 
He  should  also  be  made  to  know  what  you  are  whip- 
ping him  for.  In  harnessing  up  a  mule  that  will  kick 
or  strike  with  the  forefeet,  get  a  rope,  or,  as  we  term  it 
in  the  army,  a  lariat.  Throw,  or  put  the  noose  of  this 
over  his  head,  taking  care  at  the  same  time  that  it  be 
done  so  that  the  noose  does  not-  choke  him  ;  then  get 
the  mule  on  the  near  side  of  a  w^agon,  put  the  end  of 
the  lariat  tlirough  the  space  between  the  spokes  of  the 
1* 


10  THE   MTJLE. 

fore  wheel,  then  pull  the  end  through  so  that  jou  can 
walk  back  with  it  to  the  hinder  wheel  (taking  care  to 
keep  it  tight),  then  pass  it  through  the  same,  and  pull 
the  mule  close  to  the  wagon.  In  this  position  you  can 
bridle  and  harness  him  without  fear  of  being  crippled. 
In  putting  the  rope  through  the  above  places,  it  sliould 
be  put  through  the  wheels,  so  as  to  bring  it  as  high  as 
the  mule's  breast  in  front,  and  flanks  in  the  rear.  In 
making  them  fast  in  this  way,  they  frequently  kick 
until  they  get  over  the  rope,  or  lariat ;  hence  the  neces- 
sity of  keeping  it  as  high  up  as  possible.  If  you  chance 
upon  a  mule  so  wild  that  you  cannot  handle  him  in  this 
way,  put  a  noose  of  the  lariat  in  the  mule's  mouth, 
and  let  the  eye,  or  the  part  where  you  put  the  end  of 
the  lariat  through,  be  so  as  to  form  another  noose.  Set 
this  directly  at  the  root  of  the  mule's  ear,  pull  it  tight 
on  him,  taking  care  to  keep  the  noose  in  the  same 
place.  But  when  you  get  it  pulled  tight  enough,  let 
some  one  hold  the  end  of  the  lariat,  and,  my  word  for 
it,  you  will  bridle  the  mule  without  much  further 
trouble. 

In  hitching  the  mule  to  a  wagon,  if  he  be  wild  or 
vicious,  keep  tlie  lariat  the  same  as  I  have  described 
until  you  get  him  hitched  up,  then  slack  it  gently,  as 
nearly  all  mules  will  buck  or  jump  stiff-legged  as  soon 
as  you  ease  up  the  lariat ;  and  be  careful  not  to  pull 
the  rope  too  tight  when  first  put  on,  as  by  so  doing  you 
might  split  the  mule's  mouth.  Let  me  say  here  that  I 
have  broken  thousands  of  four  and  six-mule  teams  that 
not  one  of  the  animals  had  ever  had  a  strap  of  harness 
on  when  I  began  with  them,  and  I  have  driven  six- 


THE    MULE.  11 

mule  teams  lor  years  on  the  frontier,  but  I  have  yet  to 
see  the  first  team  of  unbroken  mules  that  could  be 
driven  with  any  degree  of  certainty.  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  they  cannot  be  got  along  the  road  ;  but  I 
regard  it  no  driving  worthy  of  the  name  when  a  driver 
cannot  get  his  team  to  any  place  where  he  may  desire 
to  go  in  a  reasonable  time — and  this  he  cannot  do 
with  unbroken  mules.  With  green  or  unbroken  mules, 
you  must  chase  or  herd  them  along  without  the  whip, 
until  you  get  them  to  know  that  you  want  them  to  pull 
in  a  wagon.  When  you  have  got  them  in  a  wagon, 
pull  their  heads  round  in  the  direction  you  want  them 
to  go ;  then  convince  them  by  your  kindness  that  you 
are  not  going  to  abuse  them,  and  in  twelve  days'  care- 
ful handling  you  will  be  able  to  drive  them  any  way 
you  please. 

In  bridling  the  young  mule,  it  is  necessary  to  have  a 
bit  that  will  not  injure  the  animal's  mouth.  Hundreds 
of  mules  belonging  to  the  Government  are,  in  a  measure, 
ruined  by  using  a  bridle  bit  that  is  not  much  thicker 
than  the  wire  used  by  the  telegraph.  I  do  not  mean 
by  this  that  the  bridle  bit  used  by  the  Government  in 
its  blind  bridles  is  not  well  adapted  to  the  purpose. 
If  properly  made  and  properly  used,  it  is.  Nor  do 
I  think  any  board  of  officers  could  have  gotten  up  or 
devised  a  better  harness  and  wagon  for  army  purposes 
than  those  made  in  conformity  with  the  decision  of  the 
board  of  officers  that  recommended  the  harness  and 
wagon  now  used.  The  trouble  with  a  great  many  of 
the  bits  is,  that  they  are  not  made  up  to  the  regulations, 
and  are  too  thin.     And  this  bit,  when  the  animal's 


12  THE   MULE. 

head  is  reined  u])  too  tight,  as  army  teamsters  are  very 
likely  to  do,  is  sure  to  work  a  sore  mouth. 

There  are  few  things  in  breaking  the  mule  that 
should  be  so  carefully  guarded  against  as  this.  For  as 
soon  as  the  animal  gets  a  sore  mouth,  he  cannot  eat 
well,  and  becomes  fretful ;  then  he  cannot  drink  well, 
and  as  his  mouth  keeps  splitting  up  on  the  sides,  he 
soon  gets  so  that  he  cannot  keep  water  in  it,  and 
every  swallow  he  attempts  to  take,  the  water  will  spirt 
out  of  the  sides,  just  above  the  bit.  As  soon  as  the 
mule  finds  that  he  cannot  drink  without  this  trouble, 
he  very  naturally  pushes  his  nose  into  the  water  above 
where  his  mouth  is  split,  and  drinks  until  the  want  of 
breath  forces  him  to  stop,  although  he  has  not  had  suf- 
ficient water.  The  animal,  of  course,  throws  up  its 
head,  and  the  stupid  teamster,  as  a  general  thing,  drives 
the  mule  away  from  the  water  with  his  thirst  about 
half  satisfied. 

Mules  with  their  mouths  split  in  this  way  are  not  fit 
to  be  used  in  the  teams,  and  the  sooner  they  are  taken 
out  and  cured  the  better  for  the  army  and  the  Govern- 
ment. I  have  frequently  seen  Government  trains  de- 
tained several  minutes,  block  the  road,  and  throw  the 
train  into  disorder,  in  order  to  give  a  mule  with  a  split 
mouth  time  to  drink.  In  making  up  teams  for  a  train, 
I  invariably  leave  out  all  mules  whose  mouths  are  not 
in  a  sound  state,  and  this  I  do  without  regard  to  the 
kind  or  quality  of  the  animal.  But  the  mule's  mouth 
can  be  saved  from  the  condition  I  have  referred  to, 
if  the  bit  be  made  in  a  proper  manner. 

The  bit  should  be  one  inch  and  seven-eighths  round, 


THE   MULE.  .  13 

and  five  inches  in  the  draw,  or  "between  the  rings.  It 
should  also  have  a  sweep  of  one  quarter  of  an  inch  to 
the  five  inches  long.  I  refer  now  to  the  bit  for  the 
blind  bridle.  With  a  bit  of  this  kind  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  injure  the  mule's  mouth,  unless  he  is  very 
young,  and  it  cannot  be  done  then  if  the  animal  is 
handled  with  proper  care. 

There  is  another  matter  in  regard  to  harnessing  the 
mule  which  I  deem  worthy  of  notice  here.  Govern- 
ment teamsters,  as  a  general  thing,  like  to  see  a  mule's 
head  reined  tightly  up.  I  confess  that,  with  all  my 
experience,  I  have  never  seen  the  benefit  there  was  to 
be  derived  from  this.  I  always  found  that  the  mule 
worked  better  when  allowed  to  carry  his  head  and  neck 
in  a  natural  position.  When  not  reined  up  at  all,  he 
will  do  more  work,  out-pull,  and  wear  out  the  one 
that  is.  At  present,  nearly  all  the  Government  mule- 
teams  are  reined  up,  and  worked  with  a  single  rein. 
This  is  the  old  Virginia  way  of  driving  mules.  It 
used  to  be  said  that  any  negro  knew  enough  to  drive 
mules.  I  fear  the  Government  has  too  long  acted  on 
that  idea. 

I  never  heard  but  one  reason  given  for  reining  the 
heads  of  a  mule-team  up  tight,  and  that  was,  that  it 
made  the  animals  look  better. 

The  next  thing  requiring  particular  attention  is  the 
harnessing.  During  the  war  it  became  customary  to 
cut  the  drawing-chains,  or,  as  some  call  them,  the  trace- 
chains.  The  object  of  this  was,  to  bring  the  mule  close 
up  to  his  work.     The  theory  was  taken  from  the  strings 


14  THE   MULE. 

of  horses  used  in  drawing  railroad  cars  througli  cities. 
Horses  that  are  used  for  hauling  cars  in  this  manner 
are  generally  fed  morning,  noon,  and  night ;  and  are 
able  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  a  swingle-tree,  should  it  be 
let  down  so  low  as  to  work  on  the  brakes,  as  it  did  too 
frequently  in  the  army.  Besides,  the  coupling  of  the 
car,  or  the  part  they  attach  the  horse  to,  is  two-thirds 
the  height  of  a  common-sized  animal,  which,  it  will  be 
seen  at  a  glance,  is  enough  to  keep  the  swingle-tree  off 
his  heels.  N^ow,  the  tongue  of  a  G-overnment  wagon  is 
a  very  different  thing.  In  its  proper  condition,  it  is 
about  on  an  average  height  with  the  mule's  hocks  ;  and, 
especially- during  the  last  two  years  of  the  war,  it  was 
customary  to  pull  the  mule  so  close  up  to  the  swingle-tree 
that  his  hocks  would  touch  it.  The  result  of  hitching 
in  this  manner  is,  that  the  mule  is  continually  try- 
ing to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  the  swingle-tree,  and, 
finding  that  he  cannot  succeed,  he  becomes  discouraged. 
And  as  soon  as  he  does  this  he  will  lag  behind ;  and  as 
he  gets  sore  from  this  continual  banging,  he  will  spread 
his  hind  legs  and  try  to  avoid  the  blows;  and,  in  doing 
this,  he  forgets  his  business  and  becomes  irritable.  This 
excites  the  teamster,  and,  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a 
hundred,  he  will  beat  and  punish  the  animal  cruelly, 
expecting  thereby  to  cure  him  of  the  trouble.  But, 
instead  of  pacifying  the  mule,  he  will  only  make  him 
worse,  which  should,  under  no  circumstances,  be  done. 
The  proper  course  to  pursue,  and  I  say  so  from  long 
experience,  is  to  stop  the  team  at  once,  and  let  all  the 
traces  out  to  a  length  that  will  allow  the  swingle-tree 
to  swing  half  v/ay  between  the  hock  and  the  heel  of 


TEE   MULE.  35 

the  hoof.  In  other  words,  give  him  room  enough  to 
step,  between  tlie  collar  and  swingle-tree,  so  that  the 
swingle-tree  cannot  touch  his  legs  when  walking  at  his 
longest  stride.  If  the  above  rule  be  followed,  the 
animal  will  not  be  apt  to  touch  the  swingle- tree. 
Indeed,  it  will  not  be  apt  to  touch  him,  unless  he  be 
lazj ;  and,  in  that  case,  the  sooner  you  get  another 
mule  the  better.  I  say  this  because  one  lazy  mule  will 
spoil  a  good  team,  invariably.  A  lazy  mule  can  be 
i-iept  up  to  his  work  with  a  whip,  you  will  say ;  but,  in 
whipping  a  lazy  animal,  you  keep  the  others  in  such  a 
state  of  excitement  that  they  are  certain  to  get  poor 
and  valueless. 

There  is  another  advantage  in  having  the  drawing- 
chains  worked  at  the  length  I  have  described.  It  is 
this  :  The  officers  that  formed  the  board  that  recom- 
mended the  drawing-chain,  also  recommended  a 
number  of  large  links  on  one  end  of  the  chain,  so 
that  it  could  be  made  longer  or  shorter,  as  desired. 
If  made  in  conformity  with  the  recommendation  of 
that  board  of  officers,  it  can  be  let  out  so  as  to  fit  the 
largest  sized  mule,  and  can  be  taken  up  to  fit  the  short- 
est. When  I  say  this,  I  mean  to  include  such  animals 
as  are  received  according  to  the  standard  of  the  Quarter- 
master-General's department. 


CHAPTEE  II. 


THE    DISADVAiTTAGES    OF    WORKING   MULES    THAT    AEE    TOO 
YOUNG. 

A  GREAT  many  of  the  mules  purchased  by  the  Govern- 
ment during  the  war  were  entirely  too  young  for  use. 
This  was  particularly  so  in  the  West,  where  both  con- 
tractor and  inspector  seemed  anxious  only  to  get  the 
greatest  number  they  could  on  the  hands  of  the  Govern- 
ment, without  respect  to  age  or  quality.  I  have 
harnessed,  or  rather  tried  to  harness,  mules  during  the 
war,  that  were  so  young  and  small  that  you  could 
not  get  collars  small  enough  to  fit  them.  As  to  the 
harness,  they  were  almost  buried  in  it.  A  great  many 
of  these  small  mules  were  but  two  years  old.  These 
animals  were  of  no  use  to  the  Government  for  a  long 
time.  Indeed,  the  inspector  might  just  as  well  have 
given  his  certificate  for  a  lot  of  milk  cows,  so  far  as 
they  added  to  our  force  of  transportation.  Another 
source  of  trouble  has  been  caused  through  a  mistaken 
opinion  as  to  what  a  young  mule  could  do,  and  how  he 
onght  to  be  fed.  Employers  and  others,  who  had  3'oung 
mules  under  their  charge  during  the  war,  had,  as  a 
general  thing,  surplus  forage  on  hand.  When  they 
were  in  a  place  where  nine  pounds  of  grain  could  be 


THE  MULE.  17 

procured,  and  fourteen  of  haj,  the  full  allowance  was 
purchased.  The  surplus  resulting  from  this  attracted 
notice,  and  many  wondered  why  it  was  that  the  Govern- 
ment did  not  reduce  the  forage  on  the  mule.  These 
persons  did  not  for  a  moment  suspect,  or  imagine,  that 
a  three  year  old  mule  has  so  many  loose  teeth  in  his 
mouth  as  to  be  hardly  able  to  crack  a  grain  of  com, 
or  masticate  his  oats. 

Another  point  in  that  case  is  this :  at  three  years  old, 
a  mule  is  in  a  worse  condition,  generally,  than  he  is  at 
any  other  period  in  life.  At  three,  he  is  more  subject 
to  distemper,  sore  eyes,  and  inflammation  of  all  parts  of 
the  head  and  body.  He  becomes  quite  weak  from  not 
being  able  to  eat,  gets  loose  and  gaunt,  and  is  at  that 
time  more  subject  and  more  apt  to  take  contagious 
diseases  than  at  any  other  change  he  may  go  through. 
There  is  but  one  sure  way  to  remedy  this  evil.  Do  not 
buy  three  year  old  mules  to  put  to  work  that  it  requires 
a  five  or  six  year  old  mule  to  perform.  Six  three  year 
old  mules  are  just  about  as  fit  to  travel  fifteen  miles  per 
day,  with  an  army  wagon  loaded  with  twenty-five  hun- 
dred and  their  forage,  as  a  boy,  six  years  of  age,  is  fit  to 
do  a  man's  work.  During  the  first  twelve  months  of 
the  war,  I  had  charge  of  one  hundred  and  six  mule- 
teams,  and  I  noticed  in  particular,  that  not  one  solitary 
mule  as  high  as  six  years  old  gave  out  on  the  trips  that 
I  made  with  the  teams.  I  also  noticed  that,  on  most 
occasions,  the  three  year  olds  gave  out,  or  became  so  leg- 
weary  that  they  could  scarce  w^alk  out  of  the  way  of  the 
swingle- tree,  whereas  those  of  four  and  upward  would 
be  bi-ight  and  brisk,  and  able  to  eat  their  forage  when 


18  THE  MULE. 

tliej  came  to  camp.  The  three  year  old  mules  would 
lie  down  and  not  eat  a  bite,  through  sheer  exhaustion. 
I  also  noticed  that  nearly  all  the  three  year  old  mules 
that  went  to  Utah,  in  1857,  froze  to  death  that  winter, 
while  those  whose  ages  varied  from  four,  and  up  to  ten, 
stood  the  winter  and  came  out  in  the  spring  in  good 
working  condition.  In  August,  1855,  I  drove  a  six- 
mule  team  to  Fort  Kiley,  in  Kansas  Temtory,  from 
Fort  Leavenworth,  on  the  Missouri  Kiver,  loaded  with 
twelve  sacks  of  grain.  It  took  us  thirteen  days  to  make 
the  trip.  "When  we  reached  Fort  Riley  there  were 
not  fifty  mules,  in  the  train  of  one  hundred  and  fifty, 
that  would  have  sold  at  public  sale  for  thirty  dollars, 
and  a  great  many  gave  out  on  account  of  being  too 
young  and  the  want  of  proper  treatment.  In  the  fall 
of  1860,  I  drove  a  six-mule  team,  loaded  with  thirty 
hundred  weight,  twenty-five  days'  rations  for  myself  and 
another  man,  and  twelve  days'  forage  for  the  team, 
being  allowed  twelve  pounds  to  each  mule  per  day.  I 
drove  this  team  to  Fort  Laramie,  in  Nebraska  Territory, 
and  from  there  to  Fort  Leavenworth,  on  the  Missouri 
River.  I  made  the  drive  there  and  back  in  thirty-eight 
days,  and  laid  over  two  and  a  half  days  out  of  that. 
The  distance  travelled  was  twelve  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  miles.  After  a  rest  of  two  days,  I  started  with  the 
same  team,  and  drove  to  Fort  Scott,  in  Kansas  Terri- 
tory, in  five  days,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles.  I  went  with  Harney's  command,  and,  for  the 
most  part  of  the  time,  had  no  hay,  and  was  forced  to 
subsist  our  animals  on  dry  prairie  grass,  and  had  a 
poor  supply  of  even  that.     Notwithstanding  this,  I  do 


THE   MULE.  19 

not  believe  that  any  mule  in  the  team  lost  as  much  as 
ten  pounds  of  flesh.  Each  of  these  mules,  let  me  say, 
was  upward  of  five  years  old. 

In  1858, 1  took  a  train  of  mules  to  Camp  Floyd,  in 
Utah,  forty-eight  miles  south  of  Salt  Lake  City. 
During  the  march  there  were  days  and  nights  that 
I  could  not  get  a  drop  of  water  for  the  animals. 
The  young  mules,  three  and  four  years  old,  gave  out 
from  sheer  exhaustion ;  while  the  older  ones  kept  up, 
and  had  to  draw  the  wagons  along.  E'ow,  there  are 
many  purposes  to  which  a  young  mule  maybe  put  with 
advantage ;  but  they  are  altogether  unfit  for  army 
purposes,  and  the  sooner  the  Government  stops  using 
them,  the  better. 

When  they  are  purchased  for  army  use,  they  are  al- 
most sure  to  be  put  into  a  train,  and  turned  over  to  the 
tender  mercies  of  some  teamster,  who  knows  nothing 
whatever  about  the  character  of  the  animal.  And  here 
let  me  say  that  thousands  of  the  best  mules  in  the  army, 
during  the  war,  were  ruined  and  made  useless  to  the  Gov- 
ernment on  account  of  the  incompetency  and  ignorance 
of  the  wagon-masters  and  teamsters  who  had  to  deal 
with  them.  Persons  who  own  private  teams  and  horses 
are  generally  particular  to  know  the  character  of  the  per- 
son who  takes  care  of  them,  and  to  ascertain  that  he 
knows  his  business.  Is  he  a  good  driver  ?  Is  he  a  good 
groom  ?  Is  he  careful  in  feeding  and  watering  ?  These 
are  the  questions  that  are  asked  ;  and  if  he  has  not  these 
qualities  he  will  not  do.  But  a  teamster  in  the  army  has 
none  of  these  questions  put  to  him.  'No ;  he  is  intrusted 
with  a  valuable  team,  and  expected  to  take  proper  care 


20  THE  MULE. 

of  it.  when  he  has  not  the  first  qualification  to  do  so. 
If  he  is  asked  a  question  at  all,  it  is  merely  if  he  has 
ever  driven  a  team  before.  If  he  answer  in  the  affirma- 
tive, and  there  are  any  vacancies,  he  is  employed  at 
once,  though  he  may  not  know  how  to  lead  a  mule  by 
the  head  properly.  This  is  not  alone  the  case  with 
teamsters.  I  have  known  wagon-masters  who  really 
did  not  know  how  to  straighten  out  a  six-mule  team, 
or,  indeed,  put  the  harness  on  them  properly.  And  yet 
the  wagon-master  has  almost  complete  power  over  the 
train.  It  will  be  readily  seen  from  this,  how  much 
valuable  property  may  be  destroyed  by  placing  incom- 
petent men  in  such  places.  Wagon-masters,  it  seems 
to  me,  should  not  be  allowed,  under  any  circumstances, 
to  have  or  take  charge  of  a  train  of  animals  of  any  kind 
until  they  are  thoroughly  competent  to  handle,  harness, 
and  drive  a  six-animal  team. 

There  is  another  matter  which  needs  essential  im- 
provement. I  refer  now  to  the  men  who  are  placed 
as  superintendents  over  our  Government  corrals  and 
depots  for  animals.  Many  of  these  men  know  little  of 
either  the  horse  or  the  mule,  and  are  almost  entirely 
ignorant  of  what  is  necessary  for  transportation.  A 
superintendent  should  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  character  and  capacity  of  all  kinds  of  animals  neces- 
sary for  a  good  team.  He  should  know  at  sight  the  age 
and  weight  of  animals,  should  be  able  to  tell  the  most- 
suitable  place  for  different  animals  in  a  team,  and  where 
each  would  be  of  the  most  service.  He  should  know 
all  parts  of  his  wagon  and  harness  at  a  glance,  be 
able  to  take  each  portion  apart  and  put  them  together 


THE    MULE.  21 

again,  each  in  its  proper  shape  and  place,  and,  above 
all,  he  should  have  practical  experience  with  all  kinds 
of  animals  that  are  used  in  the  army.  This  is  especially 
necessary  during  war. 


CHAPTEE    HI. 


COLOK,    CHAKACTER,    AND    PECULIAKITIES    OF   MULES. 

After  being  in  command  of  the  upper  corral,  I  was 
ordered,  on  the  7th  of  September,  1864,  to  take  charge 
of  the  Eastern  Branch  Wagon  Park,  Washington. 
There  were  at  that  time  in  the  park  twenty-one  six- 
mule  trains.  Each  train  had  one  hundred  and  fifty 
mules  and  two  horses  attached.  There  were  times, 
however,  when  we  had  as  many  as  forty-two  trains  of 
six-mule  teams,  with  thirty  men  attached  to  each 
train.  In  a  year  from  the  above  date  we  handled  up- 
ward of  seventy-four  thousand  mules,  each  and  every 
one  passing  under  my  inspection  and  through  my 
hands. 

In  handling  this  large  number  of  animals.  I  aimed  to 
ascertain  which  was  the  best,  the  hardest,  and  the  most 
durable  color  for  a  mule.  I  did  this  because  great  im- 
portance has  been  attached  by  many  to  the  color  of 
these  animals.  Indeed,  some  of  our  officers  have  made 
it  a  distinguishing  feature.  But  color,  I  am  satisfied,  is 
no  criterion  to  judge  by.  There  is  an  exception  to  this, 
perhaps,  in  the  cream-colored  mule.  In  most  cases,  these 
cream-colored  mules  are  apt  to  be  soft,  and  they  also 
lack  strength.     This  is  particularly  so  v/ith  those  that 


THE   MULE.  23 

take  after  the  mare,  and  have  manes  and  tails  of  the 
same  color.  Those  that  take  after  the  jack  generally 
have  black  stripes  round  their  legs,  black  manes  and 
tails,  and  black  stripes  down  their  backs  and  across  their 
shoulders,  and  are  more  hardy  and  better  animals.  I 
have  frequently  seen  men,  in  purchasing  a  lot  of  mules, 
select  those  of  a  certain  color,  fancying  that  they  were  the 
hardiest,  and  yet  the  animals  would  be  widely  different 
in  their  working  qualities.  Yon  may  take  a  black 
mule,  black  mane,  black  hair  in  his  ears,  black  at  the 
flank,  between  the  hips  or  thighs,  and  black  under  the 
belly,  and  put  him  alongside  of  a  similar  sized  mule, 
marked  as  I  have  described  above,  say  light,  or  what  is 
called  mealy-colored,  on  each  of  the  above-mentioned 
parts,  put  them  in  the  same  condition  and  flesh,  of 
similar  age  and  soundness,  and,  in  many  cases,  the  mule 
w^ith  the  light-colored  parts  will  wear  the  other  out. 

It  is  very  different  with  the  white  mule.  He  is  gen- 
erally soft,  and  can  stand  but  little  hardship.  I  refer 
particularly  to  those  that  have  a  white  skin.  Next  to 
the  white  and  cream,  we  have  the  iron-grey  mule.  This 
color  generally  indicates  a  hardy  mule.  We  have  now 
twelve  teams  of  iron-gray  mules  in  the  park,  which 
have  been  doing  hard  work  every  day  since  July,  1865  ; 
it  is  now  January,  1866.  Only  one  of  these  mules  has 
become  "unfit  for  service,  and  that  one  was  injured  by 
being  kicked  by  his  mate.  All  our  other  teams  have 
had  more  or  less  animals  made  unfit  for  service  and 
exchanged. 

In  speaking  of  the  color  of  mules,  it  must  not  be 
inferred  that  there  are  no  mules  that  are  all  of  a  color 


24  THE   :NnJLE. 

that  are  not  liardj  and  capable  of  endurance.  I  have 
had  some,  whose  color  did  not  vary  from  head  to  foot, 
that  were  capable  of  great  endurance.  But  in  most 
cases,  if  kept  steadily  at  work  from  the  time  they  were 
three  years  old  until  they  were  eight  or  ten,  they  gener- 
ally gave  out  in  some  part,  and  became  an  expense 
instead  of  profit. 

Yarious  opinions  are  held  as  to  what  the  mule  can  be 
made  to  do  under  the  saddle,  many  persons  asserting 
that  in  crossing  the  plains  he  can  be  made  to  perform 
almost  equal  to  the  horse.  This  is  true  on  the  prairie. 
But  there  he  works  with  every  advantage  over  the 
horse.  In  1858,  I  rode  a  mule  from  Cedar  Yalley, 
forty-eight  miles  north  of  Salt  Lake  City,  to  Fort 
Leavenworth,  Kansas,  a  distance  of  nearly  fourteen 
hundred  miles.  Starting  from  Cedar  Valley  on  the 
22 d  of  October,  I  reached  Fort  Leavenworth  on  the 
31st  of  December.  At  the  end  of  the  journey  the  ani- 
mal was  completely  worn  down. 

In  this  condition  I  put  her  into  Fleming's  livery  sta- 
ble, in  Leavenworth  City,  and  was  asked  if  she  was 
perfectly  gentle.  One  would  suppose  that,  in  such  a 
condition,  she  would  naturally  be  so.  I  assured  the 
hostler  that  she  was ;  that  I  had  ridden  her  nearly  a 
year,  and  never  knew  her  to  kick.  That  same  morning, 
\vhen  the  hostler  went  to  feed  her,  she  suddenly  became 
vicious,  and  kicked  him  very  severely.  She  was  then 
about  twelve  years  old.  I  have  since  thought  that 
when  a  mule  gets  perfectly  gentle  he  is  unfit  for  service. 

Proprietors  of  omnibuses,  stage  lines,  and  city  rail- 
roads have,  in  many  cases,  tried  to  work  mules,  as  a 


THE   MULE.  25 

matter  of  economy  ;  but,  as  a  general  thing,  tlie  experi- 
ment proved  a  failure,  and  they  gave  it  up  and  returned 
to  horses.  The  great  reason  for  this  failure  was,  that 
the  persons  placed  in  charge  of  them  knew  nothing  of 
their  disposition,  and  lacked  that  experience  in  handling 
them  which  is  so  necessary  to  success.  But  it  must  be 
admitted  that,  as  a  general  thing,  they  are  not  well 
adapted  for  road  or  city  purposes,  no  matter  how  much 
you  may  understand  driving  and  handling  them. 

The  mule  may  be  made  to  do  good  service  on  the 
prairies,  in  supplying  our  army,  in  towing  canal  boats, 
in  hauling  cars  inside  of  coal  mines — these  are  his 
proper  places,  where  he  can  jog  along  and  take  his  own 
time,  patiently.  Work  of  this  kind  would,  however, 
in  nearly  all  cases,  break  down  the  spirit  of  the  horse, 
and  render  him  useless  in  a  very  short  time. 

I  have  seen  it  asserted  that  there  were  mules  that 
had  been  known  to  trot  in  harness  in  three  minutes. 
In  all  my  experience,  I  have  never  seen  any  thing  of  the 
kind,  and  do  not  believe  the  mule  ever  existed  that  could 
do  it.  It  is  a  remarkably  good  road  horse  that  will  do 
this,  and  I  have  never  yet  seen  a  mule  that  could  com- 
pare for  speed  with  a  good  roadster.  I  have  driven 
mules,  single  and  double,  night  and  day,  from  two  t) 
ten  in  a  team,  and  have  handled  them  in  every  way 
that  it  is  possible  to  handle  them,  and  have  in  my  charge 
at  this  time  two  hundred  of  the  best  mule  teams  in  the 
world,  and  there  is  not  a  span  among  them  that  could 
be  forced  over  the  road  in  four  minutes.  It  is  true  of 
the  mule  that  he  will  stand  more  abuse,  more  beating, 
more  straining  and  constant  dogging  at  him  than  any 


26  THE  MULE. 

other  animal  used  in  a  team.  Eut  all  the  work  you  can 
get  out  of  him,  over  and  above  an  ordinary  day's  work, 
you  have  to  work  as  hard  as  he  does  to  accomplish. 

Some  curious  facts  have  come  under  my  knowledge 
as  to  what  the  mule  can  endure.  These  facts  also 
illustrate  what  can  be  done  with  the  animal  by  persons 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  his  character.  While  on 
the  plains,  I  have  known  Kiowa  and  Camanche  Indians 
to  break  into  our  pickets  during  the  night,  and  steal 
mules  that  had  been  pronounced  completely  broken 
down  by  white  men.  And  these  mules  they  have  rid- 
den sixty  and  sixty-five  miles  of  a  single  night.  How 
these  Indians  managed  to  do  this,  I  never  could  tell.  I 
have  repeatedly  seen  Mexicans  mount  mules  that  our 
men  had  pronounced  unfit  for  further  service,  and  ride 
them  twenty  and  twenty-five  miles  without  stopping. 
I  do  not  mention  this  to  show  that  a  Mexican  can  do 
more  with  the  mule  than  an  American.  He  cannot. 
And  yet  there  seems  to  be  some  sort  of  fellow-feeling 
between  these  Mexicans  and  the  mule.  One  seems  to 
understand  the  other  completely ;  and  in  disposition 
there  is  very  little  difference.  And  yet  the  Mexican  is 
so  brutish  in  dealing  with  animals,  that  I  never  allowed 
one  of  them  to  drive  a  Government  team  for  me.  In- 
deed, a  low  Mexican  does  not  seem  disposed  to  work 
for  a  man  who  will  not  allow  him  full  latitude  in  the 
abuse  of  animals. 

Packing  Mules. — The  Mexican  is  a  better  packer 
than  the  American.  He  has  had  more  experience,  and 
understands  all  its  details  better  than  any  other  man. 
Some  of  our  United  States  ofiicers  have  tried  to  im- 


THE  MULE.  27 

prove  on  the  experience  of  the  Greaser,  and  have  made 
what  thej  called  an  improvement  on  the  Mexican  pack- 
saddle.  But  all  the  attempts  at  improvement  have 
been  utter  failures.  The  ranchero,  on  the  Pacific  side 
of  the  Sierra  Nevadas,  is  also  a  good  packer ;  and  he 
can  beat  the  Mexican  lassoing  cattle.  But  he  is  the 
only  man  in  the  United  States  who  can.  The  reason 
for  this  is,  that  they  went  into  that  country  when  very 
young,  and  improved  on  the  Mexican,  by  having  cattle, 
mules,  and  horses  round  them  all  the  time,  and  being 
continually  catching  them  for  the  pm'pose  of  branding 
and  marking. 

There  is,  in  Old  as  well  as  N'ew  Mexico,  a  class  of 
mules  that  are  known  to  us  as  Spanish,  or  Mexican 
mules.  These  mules  are  not  large,  but  for  endurance 
they  are  very  superior,  and,  in  my  opinion,  cannot  be 
excelled.  I  am  not  saying  too  much  when  I  assert, 
that  I  have  seen  nothing  in  the  United  States  that  could 
compare  with  them.  They  can,  apparently,  stand  any 
amount  of  starvation  and  abuse.  I  have  had  three 
Spanish  mules  in  a  train  of  twenty-nve  six-mule  teams, 
and  starting  from  Fort  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  on 
Colonel  (since  General)  Sumner's  expedition,  in  1857, 
have  travelled  to  Walnut  Creek,  on  the  Santa  Fe 
route,  a  distance  of  three  hundred  miles,  in  nine  days. 
And  this  in  the  month  of  August.  The  usual  effects 
of  hard  driving,  I  noticed,  showed  but  very  little  on 
them.  I  noticed  also,  along  the  march,  that  with  a  halt 
of  less  than  three  hours,  feeding  on  grass  that  was  only, 
tolerably  thick,  they  will  fill  up  better  and  look  in  bet- 
ter condition  for  resuming  the  march,  than  one  of  our 


28  THE   MULE. 

American  mules  that  liad  rested  five  Lours,  and  had 
tlie  same  forage.  The  breed,  of  course,  has  something 
to  do  with  this.  But  th^  animal  is  smaller,  more  com- 
pact than  our  mules,  and,  of  course,  it  takes  less  to  fill 
him  up.  It  stands  to  reason,  that  a  mule  with  a  body 
half  as  large  as  a  hogshead  cannot  satisfy  his  hunger 
in  the  time  it  would  take  a  small  one.  This  is  the 
secret  of  small  mules  outlasting  large  ones  on  the 
prairies.  It  takes  the  large  one  so  long  to  find  enough 
to  eat,  when  the  grass  is  scanty,  that  he  has  not  time 
enough  for  rest  and  recuperation.  1  often  found  them 
leaving  camp,  in  the  morning,  quite  as  hungry  and  dis- 
couraged as  they  were  when  we  halted  the  previous 
evening.  "With  the  small  mule  it  is  difierent.  He  gets 
enough  to  eat,  quick,  and  has  time  to  rest  and  refresh 
himself.  The  Spanish  or  Mexican  mule,  however,  is 
better  as  a  pack  animal,  than  for  a  team.  They  are 
vicious,  hard  to  break,  and  two-thirds  of  them  kick. 

In  looking  over  a  book,  with  the  title  of  "  Domestic 
Animals,"  I  notice  that  the  author,  Mr.  E.  L.  Allen, 
has  copied  from  the  official  report  of  the  Agricultural 
Committee  of  South  Carolina,  and  asserts  that  a  mule 
is  fit  for  service  sooner  than  a  horse.  This  is  not  true  ; 
and  to  prove  that  it  is  not,  I  will  give  what  I  consider 
to  be  ample  proof.  In  the  first  place,  a  mule  at  three 
years  old  is  just  as  much  and  even  more  of  a  colt  than 
a  horse  is.  And  he  is  as  much  out  of  condition,  on  ac- 
count of  cutting  teeth,  distemper,  and  other  colt  ail- 
ments, as  it  is  possible  to  be.  Get  a  three  year  old  mule 
tired  and  fatigued,  and  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  he  will 
get  so  discouraged  that  it  will  be  next  to  impossible  to 


THE   MULE.  29 

get  him  home  or  into  camp.  A  horse  colt,  if  able  to 
travel  at  all,  will  work  his  w^aj  home  cheerfully ;  but 
the  young  mule  will  sulk,  and  in  many  instances  will 
not  move  an  inch  while  life  lasts.  An  honest  horse  will 
try  to  help  himself,  and  do  all  he  can  for  you,  especially 
if  you  treat  him  kindly.  The  mule  colt  will,  just  as 
likely  as  not,  do  all  he  can  to  make  it  inconvenient  for 
you  and  him. 

To  show  of  how  little  service  three  year  old  mules 
are  to  the  Government,  I  will  give  the  number  handled 
by  me  during  part  of  1864  and  1865. 

On  the  1st  of  September,  1864,  Ihad  charge  of  five  thou- 
sand and  eighty-two  mules  ;  and  during  the  same  month 
I  received  two  thousand  two  hundred  and  ten,  and  issued 
to  the  Armies  of  the  Potomac,  the  James,  and  the  Shen- 
andoah, three  thousand  five  hundred  and  seventy-one, 
which  left  us  on  hand,  on  the  1st  of  October,  three 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  twenty-ona  During  the 
month  of  October  we  received  only  nine  hundred  and 
eighty,  and  issued  two  thousand  five  hundred  and  thirty, 
which  left  us  on  hand,  on  the  1st  of  ^N'ovember,  two 
thousand  one  hundred  and  seventy-one.  During  "No- 
vember  we  received  two  thousand  one  hundred  and 
eighty-six,  and  issued  to  the  army  one  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  fifty-seven,  which  left  us  on  hand,  on  the 
1st  of  December,  two  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty 
mules.     Now  mark  the  deaths. 

During  the  month  of  September,  1864,  there  died  in 
the  corral  fifteen  mules.  In  October,  six  died.  In  ]^o- 
vember,  three ;  and  in  December,  eight.  They  were 
all  two  and  three  years  old. 


30  THE   MULE. 

On  the  1st  of  May,  1865,  we  had  on  hand  four  thou- 
sand and  twelve  head,  and  received,  during  the  same 
month,  seven  thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifty-eight. 
We  issued,  during  the  same  month,  fifteen  thousand 
five  hundred  and  sixty-three,  leaving  us  on  hand,  on  the 
1st  of  June*  ix  thousand  four  hundred  and  eighty-seven. 
During  this  month  we  received  seven  thousand  nine 
hundred  and  fifty-one,  and  issued  eleven  thousand 
nine  hundred  and  fifteen.  Our  mules  during  these 
months  were  sent  out  to  be  herded,  and  the  total  num- 
ber of  deaths  during  the  time  was  twenty-four.  But 
two  of  them  were  over  four  years  old.  Now,  it  occurs 
to  me  that  it  would  be  a  great  saving  to  the  Government 
not  to  purchase  any  mules  under  four  years  old.  This 
statement  of  deaths  at  the  corral  is  as  nothing  when 
compared  with  the  number  of  deaths  of  young  mules  in 
the  field.  It  is,  in  fact,  well  established  that  fully  two- 
thirds  of  the  deaths  in  the  field  are  of  young  animals 
under  three  years  of  age.  This  waste  of  animal  life 
carries  with  it  an  expense  it  would  be  diflScult  to  esti- 
mate, but  which  a  remedy  might  easily  be  found  for. 

Now,  it  is  well  known  that  when  a  mule  has  reached 
the  age  of  four  years,  you  will  have  very  little  trouble 
with  him,  so  far  as  sickness  and  disease  are  concerned. 
Besides,  at  the  age  of  four  he  is  able  to  work,  and  work 
well ;  and  he  also  understands  better  what  you  want 
him  to  do. 

The  committee  appointed  to  report  on  this  subject 
say  many  mules  have  been  lost  by  feeding  on  cut  straw 
and  corn  meal.  This  is  something  entirely  new  to  me ; 
and  I  am  of  opinion  that  more  Government  mules  die 


THE   MULE.  31 

because  they  do  not  get  enougli  of  this  straw  and  meal. 
The  same  committee  say,  also,  that  in  no  instance  have 
they  known  them  to  be  inflicted  with  disease  other  than 
inflammation  of  the  intestines,  caused  by  exposure.  I 
only  wish  that  the  members  of  that  committee  could  have 
had  access  to  the  afladavits  in  the  Quartermaster- 
General's  department — they  would  then  have  satisfied 
themselves  that  thousands  of  Government  mules  have 
died  with  almost  every  disease  the  horse  is  subject  to. 
And  I  do  not  see  why  they  should  not  be  liable  to  the 
same  diseases,  since  they  derive  life  and  animation  from 
the  horse.  The  mule  that  breeds  closest  after  the  jack, 
and  is  marked  like  him,  is  the  hardiest,  can  stand  fa- 
tigue the  best,  and  is  less  liable  to  those  diseases  common 
to  the  horse ;  while  those  which  breed  close  af*"er  the 
mare,  and  have  no  marks  of  the  jack  about  them,  are 
liable  to  all  of  them. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  I  spoke  of  the  color 
of  mules.  I  will,  in  closing,  make  a  few  more  remarks 
on  that  subject,  which  may  interest  the  reader.  "We 
have  now  at  work  three  dun-colored  mules,  that  were 
transferred  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  1862,  and 
that  went  through  all  the  campaigns  of  that  army,  and 
were  transferred  back  to  us  in  June,  1865.  They  had 
been  steadily  at  work,  and  yet  were  in  good  condition, 
hardy,  and  bright,  when  they  were  turned  in.  These 
mules  have  a  black  stripe  across  their  shoulders,  down 
their  backs,  and  are  what  is  called  "  dark-colored  duns." 
We  also  have  the  only  full  team  that  has  gone  through 
all  the  campaigns  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  It 
was  fitted  up  at  Annapolis,  Md.,  in  September,  1861, 


32  THE   MULE. 

under  Captain  Sautelle,  A.  Q.  M.  They  are  now  in 
fine  condition,  and  equal  to  any  thing  we  have  in  the 
corral.  The  leaders  are  very  fine  animals.  They  are 
fourteen  hands  high,  one  weighing  eight  hundred,  and 
the  other  eight  hundred  and  forty -five  pounds.  One  of 
the  middle  leaders  weighs  nine  hundred,  the  other  nine 
hundred  and  forty-seven  pounds,  and  fourteen  hands 
and  a  half  high. 


CHAPTER    lY. 


DISEASES   MTJLES    AEE   LIABLE   TO. WHAT   HE     CAN   DilAW, 

•  ETC.,  ETC. 

The  committee  also  say  that  the  mule  is  a  more 
steady  animal  in  his  draft  than  the  horse.  I  think  this 
the  greatest  mistake  the  committee  has  made.  You 
have  only  to  observe  the  manner  in  which  a  dray  or 
heavily-loaded  wagon  will  toss  a  mule  about,  and  the 
way  he  will  toss  himself  around  on  the  road,  to  be  satis- 
fied that  the  committee  have  formed  an  erroneous 
opinion  on  that  point.  In  starting  with  a  load,  the 
mule,  in  many  cases,  works  with  his  feet  as  if  they  were 
set  on  a  pivot,  and  hence  does  not  take  so  firm  a  hold 
of  the  ground  as  the  horse  does.  I  have  never  yet  seen 
a  mule  in  a  dray  or  cart  that  could  keep  it  from  jolting 
him  round.  In  the  first  place,  he  has  not  the  power  to 
steady  a  dray  ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  they  never  can 
be  taught  to  do  it.  In  fine,  they  have  not  the  formation 
to  handle  a  dray  or  cart.  What,  then,  becomes  of  the 
idea  that  they  are  as  steady  in  drays  or  teams  as  the 
horse. 

The  committee  also  say  that  mules  are  not  subject 

to  such  ailments  as  horses — spavin,  glanders,  ringbone, 

and  bots.     If  I  had  the  committee  here,  I  would  show 

its  members  that  every  other  mule  in  the  quartermasters' 

departmen*-,  over  fifteen  and  a  half  hands  high,  is  either 
2* 


34  THE   MULE. 

spavined,  ringbonecl,  or  in  some  way  injured  by  the 
above-named  diseases.  The  mule  may  not  be  so  liable 
to  spavin  as  the  horse,  but  he  has  ringbone  just  the 
same.  I  cannot,  for  the  life  of  me,  see  how  the  com- 
mittee could  have  fallen  into  this  error.  There  is  this, 
however,  to  be  taken  into  consideration  :  the  mule  is  not 
of  so  sensitive  a  nature  as  the  horse,  and  will  bear  pain 
without  showing  it  in  lameness.  The  close  observer, 
however,  can  easily  detect  it.  One  reason  why  they  do 
not  show  spavin  and  ringbone  so  much  as  the  horse,  is 
because  our  blacksmiths  do  not  cut  their  heels  as  low  as 
they  do  a  horse's,  and  consequently  that  part  of  the  foot 
is  not  made  to  work  so  hard.  If  you  believe  a  mule 
has  a  ringbone,  and  yet  is  not  lame,  just  cut  his  heel 
down  low,  and  give  him  a  few  good  pulls  in  a  muddy 
place,  and  he  will  soon  develop  to  you  both  lameness 
and  rinojbone.  Cut  his  toes  down  and  leave  his  heels 
high,  and  he  will  not  be  apt  to  go  lame  with  it. 

The  committee  also  say  that  a  Mr.  Elliott,  of  the 
Patuxent  Furnaces,  says  they  hardly  ever  had  a  mule 
die  of  disease.  This  is  a  strange  statement;  for  the 
poorest  teams  I  ever  saw,  and  the  very  worst  bred 
stock,  were  on  the  Patuxent  Piver,  through  the  southern 
part  of  Maryland,  and  at  the  markets  in  TTashington 
City.  It  is  pitiable  to  see,  as  you  can  on  market  days, 
the  shabby  teams  driven  by  the  farmers  of  eastern  and 
southern  Maryland.  A  more  broken-hearted,  poverty- 
stricken,  and  dejected-looking  set  of  teams  can  be  seen 
nowhere  else.  The  people  of  Maryland  have  raised 
good  horses ;  it  is  high  time  they  waked  up  to  the  neces- 
sity, and  even  profit,  of  raising  a  better  kind  of  mule. 


THE   MULE.  35 

In  regard  to  the  draft  power  of  mules,  in  com- 
parisoa  with  horses,  there  are  various  opinions ;  and 
yet  it  is  one  which  ought  to  be  easily  settled.  I 
have  tested  mules  to  the  verv  utmost  of  their  strenofth, 
and  it  was  very  rare  to  find  a  pair  that  could  draw  thirty 
hundred  weight  a  single  year,  without  being  used  up  com- 
pletely. I^ow,  it  is  well  known  that  in  the  northern 
and  western  States  you  can  find  any  number  of  pairs 
of  horses  that  will  draw  thirty-five  and  forty  hun- 
dred weight  anywhere.  And  they  will  keep  doing  it, 
day  after  day,  and  retain  their  condition. 

There  was  one  great  difiiculty  the  Agricultural  Com- 
mittee of  South  Carolina  had  to  contend  with,  and  it 
was  this.  At  the  time  it  had  the  subject  of  the  mule 
under  consideration,  he  was  not  used  generally  through- 
out the  United  States.  I  can  easily  understand,  there- 
fore, that  the  committee  obtained  its  knowledge 
from  the  very  few  persons  who  had  them,  and  made 
the  best  report  it  could  under  the  circumstances. 
Indeed,  I  firmly  believe  the  report  was  written  with  the 
intention  of  giving  correct  information,  but  it  failed 
entirely.  In  recommending  any  thing  of  this  kind, 
great  care  should  be  taken  not  to  lead  the  inexperienced 
astray,  and  to  give  only  such  facts  as  are  obtained 
from  thorouo^h  knowledo^e  :  and  no  man  should  be 
accepted  as  authority  in  the  care  and  treatment  of 
animals,  unless  he  has  had  long  experience  with  them, 
and  has  made  them  a  subject  of  study. 

A  few  words  more  on  breaking  the  mule.  Don't 
fight  or  abuse  him.  After  you  have  harnessed  him, 
and  he  proves  to  be  refractory,  keep  your  own  temper, 


36  THE   ]MTJLE. 

slack  jour  reins,  push  him  round,  backward  and  for- 
ward, not  roughly ;  and  it*  he  will  not  go,  and  do  what 
you  want,  tie  him  to  a  post  and  let  him  stand  there  a 
day  or  so  without  food  or  water.  Take  care,  also,  that 
he  does  not  lie  down,  and  be  careful  to  have  a  person 
to  guard  him,  so  that  he  does  not  foul  in  the  harness. 
If  he  will  not  go,  after  a  day  or  two  of  this  sort  of  treat- 
ment, give  him  one  or  two  more  of  it,  and  my  word  for 
it,  he  will  come  to  his  senses  and  do  any  thing  you  want 
from  that  time  forward.  Some  persons  assert  that  the 
mule  is  a  very  cunning  animal ;  others  assert  that  he  is 
dull  and  stupid,  and  cannot  be  made  to  understand 
what  you  want.  He  is,  1  admit,  what  may  be  called  a 
tricky  animal ;  but,  for  experiment  sake,  just  play  one 
or  two  tricks  with  him,  and  he  will  show  you  by  his 
action  that  he  understands  them  well.  Indeed,  he 
knows  a  great  deal  more  than  he  generally  gets  credit 
for,  and  few  animals  are  more  capable  of  appreciating 
proper  treatment.  Like  many  other  species  of  animal, 
there  are  scarcely  two  to  be  found  of  precisely  the 
same  temper  and  disposition,  if  we  except  the  single 
vice  of  kicking,  which  they  will  all  do,  especially  when 
well  fed  and  rested.  And  we  can  excuse  even  this  vice 
in  consideration  of  the  fact,  that  the  mule  is  not  a 
natural  animal,  but  only  an  invention  of  man.  Some 
persons  are  inclined  to  think  that,  when  a  mule  is 
a  kicker,  he  has  not  been  properly  broken.  I  doubt 
if  you  can  break  a  mule  so  that  he  will  not  kick 
a  stranger  at  sight,  especially  if  he  be  under  six  years 
old.  The  only  way  to  keep  a  mule  from  kicking  you 
is  to  handle  it  a  great  deal  when  young,  and  accustom 


THE   MULE.  S7 

it  to  the  ways  and  actions  of  men.  You  must  tliroiigh 
kindness  convince  it  that  you  are  not  going  to  harm  or 
abuse  it ;  and  you  can  do  that  best  by  taking  hold  of 
it  in  a  gentle  manner  every  time  it  appears  to  be 
frightened.  Such  treatment  I  have  always  found  more 
effective  than  all  the  beating  and  abusing  you  can 
apply. 

There  is  another  fault  the  mule  has  to  contend 
against.  It  is  the  common  belief  among  teamsters  and 
others  that  he  has  less  confidence  in  man  than  the  horse 
has,  and  to  improve  this  they  almost  invariably  apply 
the  whip.  The  reason  for  this  want  of  confidence  is 
readily  found  in  the  fact  that  mule  colts  are  never 
handled  with  that  degree  of  kindness  and  care  that 
horse  colts  are.  They  are  naturally  more  stubborn  than 
the  horse,  and  most  of  those  persons  who  undertake  to 
halter  or  harness  them  for  the  first  time  are  even  more 
stubborn  in  their  disposition  than  the  mule.  They 
commence  to  break  the  animal  by  beating  him  in  the 
most  unmerciful  manner,  and  that  at  once  so  excites  the 
mule's  stubbornness,  that  many  of  them,  in  this  condi- 
tion, would  not  move  an  inch  if  you  were  to  cut  them 
to  pieces.  And  let  me  say  here  that  nothing  should  be 
so  much  avoided  in  breaking  this  animal  as  the  whip. 
The  young,  unbroken  mule  cannot  be  made  to  under- 
stand what  you  are  whipping  him  for. 

It  is. a  habit  with  mule  drivers  in  the  array,  many  of 
whom  are  men  without  feeling  for  a  dumb  animal,  to 
whip  mules  just  to  hear  their  whips  crack,  and  to  let 
others  hear  with  what  dexterity  they  can  do  it.  It  has  a 
very  bad  effect  on  the  animals,  and  some  means  should 


38 


THE   MULE. 


be  applied  to  stop  it.  Army  teamsters  and  stable-men 
seem  to  regard  it  as  a  virtue  to  be  cruel  to  animals. 
They  soon  cultivate  vicious  habits,  and  a  bad  temper 
seems  to  grow  up  with  their  occupation.  It  naturally 
follows,  then,  that  in  the  treatment  of  their  animals 
they  do  just  what  they  ought  not  to  do.  The  Govern- 
ment has  been  a  very  severe  sufferer  by  this;  and  I 
contend  that  during  a  war  it  is  just  as  necessary  to  have 
experienced  and  well  trained  teamsters  as  it  is  to  have 
hardened  and  well  trained  soldiers. 

The  mule  is  peculiar  in  his  dislikes.  Many  of  them, 
when  first  harnessed,  so  dislike  a  blind  bridle  that  they 
will  not  work  in  it.  When  you  find  this,  let  him  stand 
for  say  a  day  in  the  blinders,  and  then  take  them  ofiT, 
and  in  forty-nine  cases  out  of  fifty  he  will  go  at  once. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  mule  never  scares  or  runs 
away.  This  is  not  true.  He  is  not  so  apt  to  get 
frightened  and  run  away  as  the  horse  is.  But  any  one 
who  has  had  long  experience  with  them  in  the  army 
knows  that  they  will  both  get  frightened  and  run  away. 
They  do  not,  however,  lose  all  their  senses  when  they 
get  frightened  and  run  away,  as  the  horse  does.  Bring 
a  mule  back  after  he  has  run  away,  and  in  most  cases 
he  will  not  want  to  do  it  again.  A  horse  that  has  once 
run  away,  however,  is  never  safe  afterward.  Indeed, 
in  all  the  tens  of  thousands  of  mules  that  I  have 
handled,  I  never  yet  found  an  habitual  runaway.  Their 
sluggish  nature  does  not  incline  them  to  such  tricks. 
If  a  team  attempts  to  run  away,  one  or  two  of  them 
will  fall  down  before  they  have  gone  far,  and  this  will 
stop  the  remainder.     Attempt  to  put  one  up  to  the 


THE   MULE.  39 

same  speed  jou  would  a  horse,  over  a  rough  road,  and 
you  will  have  performed  wonders  if  he  does  not  fall  and 
break  your  bones. 

The  mule,'  especially  if  large,  cannot  stand  hard 
roads  and  pavements.  His  limbs  are  too  small  for  his 
body,  and  they  generally  give  out.  You  will  notice 
that  all  good  judges  of  road  and  trotting  horses  like  to 
see  a  good  strong  bone  in  the  leg.  This  is  actually 
necessary.  The  mule,  you  will  notice,  is  very  deficient 
in  leg,  and  generally  have  poor  muscle.  And  many  of 
them  are  what  is  called  cat-hammed. 

Worhing  Condition  of  Mules. — Most  persons,  when 
they  see  a  good,  fat,  slick  mule,  are  apt  to  exclaim  : 
"  What  a  fine  mule  there  is !  "  He  takes  it  for  granted 
that  because  the  animal  is  fat,  tall,  and  heavy,  he  must 
be  a  good  work  animal.  This,  however,  is  no  criterion 
to  judge  by.  A  mule,  to  be  in  good  condition  for 
work,  should  never  be  any  fatter  than  what  is  known 
as  good  working  condition.  One  of  fourteen  and  a 
half  hands  high,  to  be  in  good  working  condition, 
should  not  weigh  over  nine  hundred  and  fifty  pounds. 
One  of  fifteen  hands  high  should  not  weigh  over  one 
thousand  pounds.  If  he  does,  his  legs  will  in  a  very 
short  time  give  out,  and  he  will  have  to  go  to  the 
hospital.  In  working  a  mule  with  too  much  flesh,  it 
will  produce  curbs,  spavin,  ringbone,  or  crooked  hocks. 
The  muscles  and  tendons  of  their  small  legs  are  not 
capable  of  carrying  a  heavy  weight  of  body  for  any 
length  of  time.  He  may  not,  as  I  have  said  before, 
show  his  blemishes  in  lameness,  but  it  is  only  because 
he  lacks  that  fins  feeling]:  common  to  the  horse. 


^0  THE  MULE. 

I  have,  singular  as  it  may  seem,  known  mules  that 
have  been  spavined,  curbed,  and  ringboned,  and  yet 
have  been  worked  for  years  without  exhibiting  lame- 
ness. 

Avoid  spotted,  or  dapple  mules ;  they  are  the  very 
poorest  animal  you  can  get.  They  cannot  stand  hard 
work,  and  once  they  get  diseased  and  begin  to  lose 
strength,  there  is  no  saving  them.  The  Mexicans  call 
them  pintos,  or  painted  mules.  We  call  them  calico 
Arabians  or  Chickasaws.  They  have  generally  bad  eyes, 
which  get  very  sore  during  the  heat  and  dust  of  summer, 
when  many  of  them  go  blind.  Many  of  the  snow- 
white  mules  are  of  the  same  description,  and  about  as 
useless.  Mules  with  the  white  muzzle,  or,  as  some  term 
it,  white-nore  white,  and  with  white  rings  round  the 
eyes,  are  also  of  but  little  account  as  work  mules. 
They  can  stand  no  hardship  of  any  kind.  Govern- 
ment, at  least,  should  never  purchase  them.  In  pur- 
chasing mules,  you  must  look  well  to  the  age,  form, 
height,  eyes,  size  of  bone  and  muscle,  and  disposition ; 
for  these  are  of  more  importance  than  his  color.  Get 
these  right  and  you  will  have  a  good  animal. 

If  any  gentleman  wants  to  purchase  a  mule  for  the 
saddle,  let  him  get  one  bred  closer  after  the  mare  than 
the  jack.  They  are  more  docile,  handle  easier,  and 
are  more  tractable,  and  w^ill  do  what  you  want  with, 
less  trouble  than  the  other.  If  possible,  also,  get 
mare  mules ;  they  are  much  more  safe  and  trusty  under 
the  saddle,  and  less  liable  to  get  stubborn.  They  are 
also  better  than  a  horse  mule  for  team  purposes.  In 
short,  if  I  were  purchasing  mules  for  myself,  I  would 


THE   MULE.  41 

give  at  least  fifteen  dollars  more  for  mare  mules  than  I 
would  for  horse.  They  are  superior  to  the  horse  mule 
in  every  way.  One  reason  is,  that  they  possess  all 
their  natural  faculties,  while  you  deprive  the  horse  of 
his  by  altering. 

The  most  disagreeable  and  unmanageable,  and  I  was 
going  to  say  useless,  animal  in  the  world,  is  a  stud  mule. 
They  are  no  benefit  to  anybody,  and  yet  they  are  more 
troublesome  than  any  other  animal.  They  rarely  ever 
get  fat,  and  are  always  fretting ;  and  it  is  next  to  im- 
possible to  keep  them  from  breaking  loose  and  getting 
at  mares.  Besides,  they  are  exceedingly  dangerous  to 
have  amongst  horses.  They  will  frequently  ^j  at  the 
horse,  like  a  tiger,  and  bite,  tear,  and  kick  him  to 
pieces.  I  have  known  them  to  shut  their  eyes,  become 
furious,  and  dash  over  both  man  and  beast  to  get  at  a 
mare.  It  is  curious,  also,  that  a  white  mare  seems  to 
have  the  greatest  attractions  for  them.  I  have  known 
a  stud  mule  to  take  a  fancy  to  a  white  mare,  and  it 
seemed  impossible  to  keep  him  away  from  her.  Mules 
of  all  kinds,  however,  seem  to  have  a  peculiar  fancy  for 
white  mares  and  horses,  and  when  this  attachment  is 
once  formed,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  separate  them. 
If  you  want  to  drive  a  herd  of  five  hundred  mules  any 
distance,  turn  a  white  or  gray  mare  in  among  them  for, 
two  or  three  days,  and  they  will  become  so  attached  to 
her  that  you  may  turn  them  out,  and  they  will  follow 
her  anywhere.  Just  let  a  man  lead  the  mare,  and  with 
two  men  mounted  you  can  manage  the  whole  herd 
almost  as  well  as  if  they  were  in  a  team.  Another 
way  to  lead  mules  is,  to  put  a  bell  on  the  mare's  neck. 


42  THE   MTJLE. 

The  mules  will  listen  for  that  bell  like  a  lot  of  school 
children,  and  will  follow  its  tinkling  with  the  same 
instinct. 

Another  curious  thing  about  the  mule  is  this  :  You 
may  hitch  him  up  to-day  for  the  first  time,  and  he  may 
become  sullen  and  refuse  to  go  a  step  for  you.  This 
may  be  very  j)rovoking,  and  perhaps  excite  your  tem- 
per ;  but  do  not  let  it,  for  ten  chances  to  one,  if  you 
take  him  out  of  the  harness  to-day  and  put  him  in 
again  to-morrow,  that  he  will  go  right  off,  and  do  any 
thing  you  want  him.  It  is  best  always  to  get  a  young 
mule  well  used  to  the  harness  before  you  try  to  work 
him  in  a  team.  When  you  get  him  so  that  he  is  not 
afraid  of  the  harness,  you  may  consider  your  mule  two- 
thirds  broke. 

I  have  seen  it  asserted  that  a  team  of  mules  was 
more  easily  handled  than  a  team  of  horses.  It  is  im- 
possible that  this  can  be  so,  for  the  reason  that  you 
never  can  make  a  mule  as  bridle-wise  as  a  horse.  To 
further  prove  that  this  cannot  be  so,  let  any  reinsman 
put  as  many  mules  together  as  there  are  horses  in  the 
"  band  wagon"  of  a  show,  or  circus,  and  see  what  he 
can  do  with  them.  There  is  not  a  driver  living  who 
can  rein  them  with  the  same  safety  that  he  can  a  horse, 
and  for  the  very  reason,  that  whenever  the  mule  finds 
that  he  has  the  advantage  of  you,  he  will  keep  it  in 
spite  of  all  you  can  do. 

Mule  Raismg. — I  never  could  understand  why  it  was 
that  almost  every  person,  that  raises  stock,  recommends 
big,  ugly  gollips  of  mares,  for  mule-breeding.  The 
principle  is  certainly  a  wrong  one,  as  a  little  study  of 


THE   MULE.  43 

nature  must  show.  To  produce  a  good,  well-propor- 
tioned mule,  you  must  have  a  good,  compact,  and  ser- 
viceable mare.  It  is  just  as  necessary  as  in  the  crossing 
of  any  other  animal.  It  certainly  is  more  profitable 
to  raise  good  animals  than  poor  ones  ;  and  you  can- 
not raise  good  mules  from  bad  mares,  no  matter  what 
the  jack  is.  You  invariably  see  the  bad  mare  in  the 
flabby,  long-legged  mule. 

It  has  been  held  by  some  of  our  officers,  that  the 
mule  was  a  better  animal  for  Government  service,  be- 
cause he  required  less  care  and  feed  than  the  horse,  and 
would  go  longer  without  water.  This,  again,  is  a  grave 
mistake.  The  mule,  if  properly  taken  care  of,  requires 
nearly  as  much  forage  as  the  horse,  and  should  be 
groomed  and  cared  for  just  the  same.  I  refer  now  to 
team  animals.  Such  statements  do  a  great  deal  of  in- 
jury, inasmuch  as  they  encourage  *the  men  who  have 
charge  of  animals  to  neglect  and  abuse  them.  The 
teamster  who  hears  his  superior  talk  in  this  way  will 
soon  take  advantage  of  it.  Animals  of  all  kinds,  in  a 
wild  and  natural  state,  have  a  way  of  keeping  them- 
selves clean.  If  left  wild,  the  mule  would  do  it.  But 
when  man  deprives  them  of  the  privileges  by  tying  them 
up  and  domesticating  them,  he  must  assist  them  in  the 
most  natural  way  to  keep  themselves  clean.  And  this 
assistance  the  animal  appreciates  to  its  fullest  extent. 

How  to  Handle  a  Mule  Colt. — Owners  and  raisers  of 
mules  should  pay  more  attention,  to  their  habits  when 
young.  And  I  would  give  them  this  advice :  When 
the  colt  is  six  months  old,  put  a  halter  on  him  and  let 
the  strap  hang  loose.     Let  your  strap  be  about  four  feet 


44  THE   ilULE. 

long,  so  that  it  will  drag  on  the  ground.  The  animal 
will  soon  accustom  himself  to  this  ;  and  when  he 
has,  take  up  the  end  and  lead  him  to  the  place  where 
you  have  been  accustomed  to  feed  him.  This  will 
make  him  familiar  with  you,  and  increase  his  confi- 
dence. Handle  his  ears  at  times,  but  don't  squeeze 
them,  for  the  ear  is  the  most  sensitive  part  of  this  ani- 
mal. As  soon  as  he  lets  you  handle  his  ears  familiarly, 
put  a  loose  bridle  on  him.  Put  it  on  and  take  it  off 
frequently.  In  this  way  you  will  secure  the  colt's  con- 
fidence, and  he  will  retain  it  until  you  need  him  for 
work. 

Speaking  of  the  sensitiveness  of  the  mule's  ear,  a 
scratch,  or  the  slightest  injury  to  it,  will  excite  their 
stubbornness  and  make  them  afraid  of  you.  I  have 
known  a  mule's  ear  to  be  scratched  by  rough  handling, 
and  for  months  afterward  it  was  with  the  greatest 
difiiculty  you  could  bridle  him.  I^othing  is  more  impor- 
tant than  that  you  should  bridle  a  young  mule  properly. 
I  have  found  from  experience  that  the  best  way  is  this : 
stand  on  the  near  side,  of  course ;  take  the  top  of  the 
bridle  in  your  right  hand,  and  the  bit  in  your  left ;  pass 
your  arm  gently  over  his  eye  until  that  part  of  the  arm 
bends  his  ear  down,  then  slip  the  bit  into  his  mouth,  and 
at  the  same  time  let  your  hand  be  working  slowly  with 
the  bearings  still  on  his  head  and  neck,  until  you  have 
arranged  the  head-stall. 

It  would  be  a  saving  of  thousands  of  dollars  to  the 
Government,  if,  in  purchasing  mules,  it  could  get  them 
all  halter  and  bridle-broken.  Stablemen,  in  the  em- 
ploy of  the  Government,  will  not  take  the  trouble  to 


THE   MULE.  45 

halter  and  bridle-break  them  properly ;  and  I  have 
seen  hundreds  of  mules,  m  the  City  of  Washington, 
totally  ruined  by  tying  them  up  behind  wagons  while 
young,  and  literally  dragging  them  through  the  streets. 
These  mules  had  never,  perhaps,  had  a  halter  on  be- 
fore. I  have  seen  them,  while  tied  in  this  mariner, 
jump  back,  throw  themselves  down,  and  be  dragged  on 
the  ground  until  they  were  nearly  dead.  And  what  is 
worse,  the  teamster  invariably  seeks  to  remedy  this  by 
beating  them.  In  most  cases,  the  teamster  would  see 
them  dragged  to  death  before  he  would  give  them  a 
helping  hand.  If  he  knew  how  to  apply  a  proper 
remedy,  very  likely  he  would  not  give  himself  the 
trouble  to  apply  it.  I  have  never  been  able  to  find 
out  how  this  pernicious  habit  of  tying  mules  behind 
wagons  originated ;  but  the  sooner  an  order  is  issued 
putting  a  stop  to  it,  the  better,  for  it  is  nothing  less 
than  a  costly  torture.  The  mule,  more  than  any  other 
animal,  wants  to  see  where  he  is  going.  He  cannot  do 
this  at  the  tail  of  an  army  wagon,  though  it  is  an  ex- 
cellent plan  for  him  to  get  his  head  bruised  or  his 
brains  knocked  out. 

Some  persons  charge  it  as  an  habitual  vice  with  the 
mule  to  pull  back.  I  have  seen  horses  contract  that 
vice,  and  continue  it  until  they  killed  themselves. 
But,  in  all  my  experience  with  the  mule,  I  never  saw 
one  in  which  it  was  a  settled  vice.  During  the  time  I 
had  charge  of  the  receiving  and  issuing  of  horses  to  the 
army,  I  had  a  great  many  horses  injured  seriously  by 
this  vice  of  pulling  back.  Some  of  these  horses  became 
so  badly  injured  in  the  spine  that  I  had  to  send  them 


46  THE   MULE. 

to  the  hospital,  then  under  the  charge  of  Dr.  L.  H. 
Braley.  Some  were  so  badly  injured  that  they  died  in 
fits ;  others  were  cured.  Even  when  the  mule  gets  his 
neck  sore,  he  will  endure  it  like  the  ox,  and  instead 
of  pulling  back,  as  the  horse  will,  he  will  come  right  up 
for  the  purpose  of  easing  it.  They  do  not,  as  some 
suppose,  do  this  because  of  their  sore,  but  because  they 
are  not  sensitive  like  the  horse. 

Packing  Mules. — In  looking  over  a  copy  of  Mason's 
Farrier,  or  Stud  Book,  by  Mr.  Skinner,  I  find  it  stated 
that  a  mule  is  capable  of  packing  six  or  eight  hundred 
pounds.  Mr.  Skinner  has  evidently  never  packed 
mules,  or  he  would  not  have  made  so  erroneous  a  state- 
ment. I  have  been  in  all  our  Northern  and  "Western 
Territories,  in  Old  and  E'ew  Mexico,  where  nearly  all 
the  business  is  done  by  pack  animals,  mules,  and  asses ; 
and  I  have  also  been  among  the  tribes  of  Indians  bor- 
dering on  the  Mexican  States,  where  they  have  to  a  great 
extent  adopted  the  Spanish  method  of  packing,  and  yet 
I  never  saw  an  instance  when  a  mule  could  be  packed 
six  or  eight  hundred  pounds.  Indeed,  the  people  in 
these  countries  would  ridicule  such  an  assertion.  And 
here  I  pui^ose  to  give  the  result  of  my  own  experience 
in  packing,  together  with  that  of  several  others  who 
have  long  followed  the  business. 

I  also  purpose  to  say  something  on  what  I  consider 
the  best  mode  of  packing,  the  weight  suitable  for  each 
animal,  and  the  relative  gain  or  loss  that  might  result 
from  this  method  of  transportation,  as  compared  with 
transportation  by  wagon.  In  the  first  place,  packing 
ought  never  to  be  resorted  to,  because  it  cannot  be  done 


THE   MULE.  47 

witli  profit,  where  the  roads  are  good  and  wagons  and 
animals  are  to  be  had.  In  mountains,  over  deserts 
and  plains  of  sand,  where  forage  is  scant,  and  water 
only  to  be  had  at  long  intervals,  then  the  pack  is  a 
necessity,  and  can  be  used  with  profit.  Let  it  be  under- 
stood, also,  that  in  packing,  the  Spanish  pack-mule,  as 
as  well  as  saddle,  is  the  most  suitable.  Second :  The 
Spanish  method  of  packing  is,  above  all  others,  the  most 
ancient,  the  best  and  most  economical.  With  it  the 
animal  can  carry  a  heavier  burden  with  less  injury  to 
himself.  Third  :  The  weight  to  be  packed,  under  ever 
so  favorable  circumstances,  should  never  be  over  four 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  Fourth :  The  American 
pack-saddle  is  a  worthless  thing,  and  should  never  be 
used  when  any  considerable  amount  of  weight  is  re- 
quired to  be  packed. 

If  I  had  previously  entertained  any  doubt  in  regard 
to  this  American  pack-saddle,  it  was  removed  by  what 
came  under  my  observation  three  years  ago.  While 
employed  in  the  quartermasters'  depot,  at  Washington, 
D.  C.,as  superintendent  of  the  General  Hospital  Stables,' 
we  at  one  time  received  three  hundred  mules,  on  which 
the  experiment  of  packing  with  this  saddle  had  been 
tried  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  It  was  said  this  was 
one  of  General  Butterfield's  experiments.  These  animals 
presented  no  evidence  of  being  packed  more  than 
once ;  but  such  was  the  terrible  condition  of  their  backs 
that  the  whole  number  required  to  be  placed  at  once 
under  medical  treatment.  Officers  of  the  army  who 
knew  Dr.  Braley,  know  how  invariably  successful  he 
has  been  in  the  treatment  of  Government  animals,  and 


48  THE   MULE. 

how  carefully  he  treats  them.  Yet,  in  spite  of  all  his 
skill,  and  with  the  best  of  shelter,  fifteen  of  these  ani- 
mals died  from  mortification  of  their  wounds  and  inju- 
ries of  the  spine.  The  remainder  were  a  very  long  time 
in  recovering,  and  when  they  did,  their  backs,  in  many 
cases,  were  scarred  in  such  a  manner  as  to  render  them 
unfit  ever  after  for  being  used  for  a  similar  purpose. 
The  use  of  the  American  pack-saddle,  and  lack  of 
knowledge  on  the  part  of  those  in  charge  as  to  what 
mules  were  suitable  for  packing,  did  this.  The  experi- 
enced packer  would  have  seen  at  a  glance  that  a  large 
portion  of  these  mules  were  utterly  unfit  for  the  busi- 
ness. The  experiment  was  a  wretched  failure,  but  cost 
the  Government  some  thousands  of  dollars. 

I  ought  to  mention,  however,  that  the  class  of  mules 
on  which  this  experiment  was  tried  were  loose,  leggy 
animals,  such  as  I  have  heretofore  described  as  being 
almost  unfit  for  any  branch  of  Government  service. 
But,  by  all  means,  let  the  Government  abandon  the 
American  pack-saddle  until  some  further  improvements 
are  made  in  it. 

!Now,  as  to  the  weight  a  mule  can  pack.  I  have  seen 
the  Delaware  Indians,  with  all  their  efiects  packed  on 
mules,  going  out  on  a  bufialo  hunt.  I  have  seen  the 
Potawatamies,  the  Kickapoos,  the  Pawnees,  the  Che- 
yennes,  Pi-Ute,  Sioux,  Arapahoes,  and  indeed  almost 
every  tribe  that  use  mules,  pack  them  to  the  very 
extent  of  their  strength,  and  never  yet  saw  the  mule 
that  could  pack  what  Mr.  Skinner  asserts.  More  than 
that,  I  assert  here  that  you  cannot  find  a  mule  that  w^ill 
pack  even  four  hundred  pounds,  and  keep  his  condition 


THE   MULE.  49 

sixty  days.  Eight  Imndred  pounds,  Mr.  Skinner,  is  a 
trying  weight  for  a  horse  to  drag  any  distance.  What, 
then,  must  we  think  of  it  on  the  back  of  a  mule  ?  The 
officers  of  our  quartermasters'  department,  who  have 
been  out  on  the  plains,  understand  this  matter  perfectly. 
Any  of  these  gentlemen  will  tell  you  that  there  is  not 
a  pack  train  of  fifty  mules  in  existence,  that  can  pack, 
on  an  average  for  forty  days,  three  hundred  pounds  to 
the  animal. 

I  will  now  give  you  the  experience  of  some  of  the 
best  mule  packers  in  the  country,  in  order  to  show  that 
what  has  been  written  in  regard  to  the  mule's  strength 
is  calculated  to  mislead  the  reader.  In  1856,  William 
Anderson,  a  man  whom  I  know  well,  packed  from  the 
City  of  Del  Korte  to  Chihuahua  and  Durango,  in  Mexi- 
co, a  distance  of  Hve  hundred  miles  or  thereabout. 
Anderson  and  a  man  of  the  name  of  Frank  Roberts 
had  charge  of  the  pack  train.  They  had  seventy-five 
mules,  and  used  to  pack  boxes  of  dry  goods,  bales,  and 
even  barrels.  They  had  two  Mexican  drivers,  and 
travelled  about  fifteen  miles  a  day,  at  most,  though- 
they  took  the  very  best  of  care  of  their  animals.  JS^ow, 
the  very  most  it  was  possible  for  any  mule  in  this  train 
to  get  along  with  was  two  hundred  and  seventy-five 
pounds.  More  than  this,  they  did  not  have  over 
twenty-five  mules  out  of  the  whole  number  that  could 
pack  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  the  average  weight 
to  the  whole  train  being  a  little  less  than  two  hundred 
pounds.  To  make  this  fifteen  miles  a  day,  they  had  to 
make  two  drives,  letting  the  animals  stop  to  feed  when- 
ever they  had  made  seven  or  eight  miles. 

3 


50  THE   MULE. 

In  1858,  this  same  Anderson  packed  for  the  expedi- 
tion sent  after  the  Snake  Indians.  His  train  consisted 
of  some  two  hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hundred  mules. 
They  packed  from  Cordelaine  Mission  to  Walla  Walla, 
in  Oregon.  The  animals  were  of  a  very  superior 
kind,  selected  for  the  purpose  of  packing  out  of  a  very 
large  lot.  Some  of  the  very  best  of  these  mules  were 
packed  with  three  hundred  pounds,  but  at  the  end  of 
two  weeks  gave  out  completely. 

In  1859,  this  same  Anderson  packed  for  a  gentleman 
of  the  name  of  David  Reese,  living  at  the  Dalles,  in 
Portland,  Oregon.  His  train  consisted  of  fifty  mules, 
in  good  average  condition,  many  of  them  weighing  nine 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  and  from  thirteen  to  fourteen 
hands  high.  His  average  packing  was  two  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds.  The  distance  was  three  hundred 
miles,  and  it  occupied  forty  days  in  going  and  return- 
ing. Such  was  the  severity  of  the  labor  that  nearly 
two-thirds  of  the  animals  became  poor,  and  their  backs 
so  sore  as  to  be  unfit  for  work.  This  trip  was  made 
from  the  Dalles,  in  Oregon,  to  Salmon  Falls,  on  the 
Columbia  River.  Anderson  asserts  it,  as  the  result  of 
his  experience,  that,  in  packing  fifty  mules  a  distance 
of  three  hundred  miles  with  two  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds,  the  animals  will  be  so  reduced  at  the  end  of  the 
journey  as  to  require  at  least  four  weeks  to  bring  them 
into  condition  again.  This  also  conforms  with  my  own 
experience. 

In  1857,  there  was  started  from  Fort  Laramie, 
Nebraska  Territory,  to  go  to  Fort  Bridger  with  salt,  a 
train  of  forty  mules.     It  was  in  the  winter  ;  each  mule 


THE   MULE.  61 

was  packed  with  one  hundred  and  eighty  pounds,  as 
near  as  we  could  possibly  estimate,  and  the  train  was 
given  in  charge  of  a  man  of  the  name  of  Donovan. 
The  weather  and  roads  were  bad,  and  the  pack  proved; 
entirely  too  heavy.  Donovan  did  all  he  could  to  get 
his  train  through,  but  was  forced  to  leave  more  than: 
tvN'o-thirds  of  it  on  the  way.  At  that  season  of  the 
year,  when  grass  is  poor  and  the  weather  bad,  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  is  enough 
for  any  mule  to  pack. 

There  were  also,  in  1857,  regular  pack  trains  run  from 
Eed  Bluifs,  on  the  Sacramento  Kiver,  in  California,  to 
Yreka  and  Curran  Kiver.  Out  of  all  the  mules  used 
in  these  trains,  none  were  packed  with  over  two  hundred 
pounds.  To  sum  up,  packing  never  should  be  resorted 
to  when  there  is  any  other  means  of  transportation 
open.  It  is,  beyond  doubt,  the  most  expensive  means  of 
transportation,  even  when  the  most  experienced  packers 
are  employed.  If,  however,  it  were  necessary  for  the 
Government  to  establish  a  system  of  packing,  it  would 
be  a  great  saving  to  import  Mexicans,  accustomed  to 
the  work,  to  perform  the  labor,  and  Americans  to  take 
charge  of  the  trains.  Packing  is  a  very  laborious  busi- 
ness, and  very  few  Americans  either  care  about  doing 
it,  or  have  the  patience  necessary  to  it. 


CHAPTEK  Y. 


PHTSICAIi   CONSTRUCTION   OF  THE  IMTLE. 

1  NOW  propose  to  say  sometliing  on  the  mule's  limbs 
and  feet.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  mule  has  a 
jack's  leg  from  the  knee  down,  and  in  this  part  of 
the  leg  he  is  weak  ;  and  with  these  he  frequently  has 
to  carry  a  horse's  body.  It  stands  to  reason,  then,  that 
if  you  feed  him  until  he  gets  two  or  three  hundred 
pounds  of  extra  flesh  on  him,  as  many  persons  do,  he 
will  break  down  for  want  of  leg-strength.  Indeed,  the 
mule  is  weakest  where  the  horse  is  strongest.  His  feet, 
too,  are  a  singular  formation,  differing  very  materially 
from  those  of  the  horse.  The  mule's  feet  grow  very 
slow,  and  the  grain  or  pores  of  the  hoof  are  much 
closer  and  harder  than  those  of  the  horse.  It  is  not  so 
liable,  however,  to  break  or  crumble.  And  yet  they 
are  not  so  well  adapted  for  work  on  macadamized  or 
stony  roads,  and  the  more  flesh  you  put  on  his  body, 
after  a  reasonable  weight,  the  more  you  add  to  the 
means  of  his  destruction. 

Observe,  for  instance,  a  farmer's  mule,  or  a  poor 
man's  mule  working  in  the  city.  These  persons,  with 
rare  exceptions,  feed  their  mules  very  little  grain,  and 
they  are  generally  in  low  flesh.     And  yet  they  last  a 


THE   MULE.  63 

Terj  long  time,  notwithstanding  tlie  rongh  treatment 
they  get.  When  you  feed  a  mule,  you  must  adjust  the 
proportions  of  his  body  to  the  strength  of  his  limbs  and 
the  kind  of  service  he  is  required  to  perform.  Expe- 
rience has  taught  me,  that  the  less  you  feed  a  mule 
below  what  he  will  eat  clean,  just  that  amount  of  value 
and  life  is  kept  out  of  him. 

In  relation  to  feeding  animals.  Some  persons  boast 
of  having  horses  and  mules  that  eat  but  little,  and  are 
therefore  easily  kept.  Now,  when  I  want  to  get  a 
horse  or  a  mule,  these  small  eaters  are  the  last  ones 
I  would  think  of  purchasing.  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
you  will  find  such  animals  out  of  condition.  When  I 
find  animals  in  the  Government's  possession,  that  cannot 
eat  the  amount  necessary  to  sustain  them  and  give 
them  proper  strength,  I  invariably  throw  them  out,  to  be 
nursed  until  they  will  eat  their  rations.  Animals,  to 
be  kept  in  good  condition,  and  fit  for  proper  service, 
should  eat  their  ten  and  twelve  quarts  of  grain  per 
head  per  day,  with  hay  in  proportion — say,  twelve 
pounds. 

I  wish  here  again  to  correct  a  popular  error,  that 
the  mule  does  not  eat,  and  requires  much  less  food  than 
the  horse.  My  experience  has  been,  that  a  mule,  twelve 
hands  high,  and  weighing  eight  hundred  pounds,  will 
eat  and,  indeed,  requires  just  as  much  as  a  horse  of 
similar  dimensions.  Give  them  similar  work,  keep 
them  in  a  stable,  or  camp  them  out  during  the  winter 
months,  and  the  mule  will  eat  more  than  the  horse  will 
or  can.  A  mule,  however,  will  eat  almost  any  thing 
rather  than  starve.     Straw,  pine  boards,  the  bark  of 


54  THE   MULE. 

trees,  grain  sacks,  pieces  of  old  leather,  do  not  come 
amiss  with  him  when  he  is  hungry.  There  were  many 
instances,  during  the  late  war,  where  a  team  of  mnlef? 
were  found,  of  a  morning,  standing  over  the  remains  of 
what  had,  the  evening  before,  been  a  Government 
wagon.  "When  two  or  more  have  been  kept  tied  to  a 
wagon,  they  have  been  known  to  eat  each  other's  tail 
off  to  the  bone.  And  yet  the  animal,  thus  deprived  of 
his  caudal  appendage,  did  not  evince  much  pain. 

In  the  South,  many  of  the  plantations  are  worked 
with  mules,  driven  by  negroes.  The  mule  seems  to 
understand  and  appreciate  the  negro ;  and  the  negro 
has  a  sort  of  fellow-feeling  for  the  mule.  Both  are 
sluggish  and  stubborn,  and  yet  they  get  along  well 
together.  The  mule,  too,  is  well  suited  to  plantation 
labor,  and  will  outlast  a  horse  at  it.  The  soil  is  also 
light  and  sandy,  and  better  suited  to  the  mule's  feet.  A 
negro  has  not  much  sympathy  for  a  work-horse,  and  in 
a  short  time  will  ruin  him  with  abuse,  whereas  he  will 
share  his  corn  with  the  mule.  'Nor  does  the  working 
of  the  soil  on  southern  plantations  overtax  the  power 
of  the  mule. 

T/ie  Value  of  Harnessing  properly . — In  working  any 
animal,  and  more  especially  the  mule,  it  is  both  humane 
and  economical  to  have  him  harnessed  properly.  Un- 
less he  be,  the  animal  cannot  perform  the  labor  he  is 
capable  of  with  ease  and  comfort.  And  you  cannot 
watch  too  closely  to  see  that  every  thing  works  in  its 
right  place.  Begin  with  the  bridle,  and  see  that  it 
does  not  chafe  or  cut  him.  The  army  blind-bridle, 
with  the  bit  alteration  attached,  is  the  very  best  bridle 


THE    MULE.  55 

tliat  can  be  used  on  either  horse  or  mule.  Be  careful, 
however,  tliat  the  crown-piece  is  not  attached  too  tight. 
Be  careful,  also,  that  it  does  not  draw  the  sides  of  the 
animal's  mouth  up  into  wrinkles,  for  the  bit,  working 
against  these,  is  sure  to  make  the  animaPs  mouth  sore. 
The  mule's  mouth  is  a  very  difficult  part  to  heal,  and 
once  it  gets  sore  he  becomes  unlit  for  work.  Your 
bridle  should  be  fitted  well  to  the  mule's  head  before 
you  attempt  to  work  him  in  it.  Leave  your  bearing- 
line  slack,  so  as  to  allow  the  mule  the  privilege  of 
learning  to  walk  easy  with  harness  on.  It  is  too  fre- 
quently the  case,  that  the  eyes  of  mules  that  are  worked 
in  the  Government's  service  are  injured  by  the  blinds 
being  allowed  to  work  too  close  to  the  eyes.  This  is 
caused  by  the  blind-stay  being  too  tight,  or  perhaps  not 
split  far  enough  up  between  the  eyes  and  ears.  This 
stay  should  always  be  split  high  enough  up  to  allow 
the  blinds  to  stand  at  least  one  inch  and  a  half  from 
the  eye. 

Another,  and  even  more  essential  part  of  the  har- 
ness is  the  collar.  More  mules  are  maimed  and  even 
ruined  altogether  by  improperly  fitting  collars,  than  is 
generally  believed  by  quartermasters.  It  requires 
more  judgment  to  fit  a  collar  properly  on  a  mule  than 
it  does  to  fit  any  other  part  of  the  harness.  Get  your 
collar  long  enough  to  buckle  the  strap  close  up  to  the 
last  hole.  Then  examine  the  bottom,  and  see  that  there 
be  room  enough  between  the  mule's  neck  or  wind-pipe 
to  lay  your  open  hand  in  easily.  This  will  leave  a 
space  between  the  collar  and  the  mule's  neck  of  nearly 
two  inches.     Aside  from  the  creased  neck,  mules'  necks 


56  THE   MULE. 

are  nearly  all  alike  in  shape.  They  indeed  vary  as 
little  in  neck  as  they  do  in  feet ;  and  what  I  say  on  the 
collar  will  apply  to  them  all.  The  teamster  has  always 
the  means  in  his  own  hands  of  remedying  a  bad  fitting 
collar.  If  the  animal  does  not  work  easy  in  it,  if  it 
pinch  him  somewhere,  let  it  remain  in  water  over 
night,  put  it  on  the  animal  wet  the  next  morning,  and 
in  a  few  minutes  it  will  take  the  exact  formation  of  the 
animal's  neck.  See  that  it  is  properly  fitted  above  and 
below  to  the  hames,  then  the  impression  which  the 
collar  takes  in  a  natural  form  will  be  superior  to  the 
best  mechanical  skill  of  the  best  harness-maker. 

There  is  another  thing  about  collars,  which,  in  my 
opinion,  is  very  important.  When  you  are  pursuing  a 
journey  with  teams  of  mules,  where  hay  and  grain 
are  scarce,  the  animals  will  naturally  become  poor, 
and  their  necks  get  thin  and  small.  If  once  the 
collar  becomes  too  large,  and  you  have  no  way  of 
exchanging  it  for  a  smaller  one,  of  course  you  must  do 
the  next  best  thing  you  can.  Kow,  first  take  the  collar 
off  the  animal,  lay  it  on  a  level,  and  cut  about  one  inch 
out  of  the  centre.  When  you  have  done  this,  try  it  on 
the  animal  again;  and  if  it  still  continues  too  large 
take  a  little  more  from  each  side  of  the  centre  until 
you  get  it  right.  In  this  way  you  can  efifect  the 
remedy  you  need. 

In  performing  a  long  journey,  the  animals  will,  if 
driven  hard,  soon  show  you  where  the  collar  ought  to 
be  cut.  They  generally  get  sore  on  the  outer  part  of 
the  shoulder,  and  this  on  account  of  the  muscle  wasting 
away.     Teamsters  on  the  plains  and  in  the  Western 


THE   MULE.  57 

Territories  cut  all  the  collars  when  starting  on  a  trip. 
It  takes  less  time  afterward  to  iit  them  to  the  teams, 
and  to  harness  and  unharness. 

When  you  find  out  where  the  collar  has  injured  the 
shoulder,  cut  it  and  take  out  enough  of  the  stuffing 
to  prevent  the  leather  from  touching  the  sore.  In  this 
way  the  animal  will  soon  get  sound-shouldered  again. 
Let  the  part  of  the  leather  you  cut  hang  loose,  so  that 
when  you  take  the  stuffing  out  you  may  put  it  back 
and  prevent  any  more  than  is  actually  necessary  from 
coming  out. 

See  that  your  hames  fit  well,  for  they  are  a  matter 
of  great  importance  in  a  mule's  drawing.  Unless  your 
hames  fit  your  collar  well,  you  are  sure  to  have  trouble 
with  your  harness,  and  your  mule  will  work  badly. 
Some  persons  think,  because  a  mule  can  be  accustom- 
ed to  work  with  almost  any  thing  for  a  harness,  that 
money  is  saved  in  letting  him  do  it.  This  is  a  great 
mistake.  You  serve  the  best  economy  when  you  har- 
ness him  well  and  make  his  working  comfortable. 
Indeed,  a  mule  can  do  more  work  with  a  bad-fitting 
collar  and  harness  than  a  man  can  walk  with  a  bad- 
fitting  boot.  Try  your  hames  on,  and  draw  them  tight 
enough  at  the  top  of  the  mule's  neck,  so  that  they  will 
not  work  or  roll  round.  They  should  be  tight  enough 
to  fit  well  without  pinching  the  neck  or  shoulder,  and, 
in  fine,  fit  as  neatly  as  a  man's  shirt-collar. 

Do  not  get  the  bulge  part  of  your  collar  down  too 

low.     If  you  do,  you  interfere  with  the  machinery  that 

propels  the  mule's  fore  legs.     Again,  if  you  raise  it  too 

high,  you  at  once  interfere  with  his  wind.     There  is  an 

3* 


58  THE   MULE. 

exact  place  for  the  bulge  of  the  collar,  and  it  is  on  the 
point  of  the  mule's  shoulder.  Some  persons  use  a  pad 
made  of  sheepskin  on  the  top  of  the  collar.  Take  it 
off,  for  it  does  no  good,  and  get  a  piece  of  thick  leather, 
free  from  wrinkles,  ten  or  twelve  inches  long  and  seven 
wide ;  slit  it  crosswise  an  inch  or  so  from  each  end, 
leaving  about  an  inch  in  the  centre.  Fit  this  in,  in 
place  of  the  pad  of  sheepskin,  and  you  will  have  a 
cheaper,  more  durable,  and  cooler  neck-gear  for  the 
animal.  You  cannot  keep  a  mule's  neck  in  good  con- 
dition with  heating  and  quilted  pads.  The  same  is  true 
of  padded  saddles.  I  have  perhaps  ridden  as  much  as 
any  other  man  in  the  service,  of  my  age,  and  yet  I 
never  could  keep  a  horse's  back  in  good  condition  with 
a  padded  saddle  when  I  rode  over  twenty-five  or  thirty 
miles  a  day. 

There  is  another  evil  which  ought  to  be  remedied. 
I  refer  now  to  the  throat-latch.  Hundreds  of  mules 
are  in  a  measure  ruined  by  allowing  the  throat-latch  to 
be  worked  too  tight.  A  tight  throat-latch  invariably 
makes  his  head  sore.  Besides,  it  interferes  with  a  part 
which,  if  it  were  not  for,  you  would  not  have  the  mule — 
his  wind.  I  have  frequently  known  mules'  heads  so 
injured  by  the  throat-latch  that  they  would  not  allow 
you  to  bridle  them,  or  indeed  touch  their  heads.  And 
to  bridle  a  mule  with  a  sore  head  requires  a  little  more 
patience  than  nature  generally  supplies  man  with. 

Let  a  mule's  ears  alone.  It  is  very  common  with 
teamsters  and  others,  when  they  want  to  harness  mules, 
to  catch  them  by  the  ears,  put  twitches  on  their  ears. 
Even  blacksmiths,  who  certainly  ought  to  know  better, 


THE   MULE.  59 

are  in  the  habit  of  putting  tongs  and  twitches  in  their 
ears  when  they  shoe  them.  !N'ow,  against  all  these  bar- 
barous and  inhuman  practices,  I  here,  in  the  name 
of  humanity,  enter  my  protest.  The  animal  becomes 
almost  worthless  by  the  injuries  caused  by  such  practices. 
There  are  extreme  cases  in  which  the  twitch  may  be 
resorted  to,  but  it  should  in  all  cases  be  applied  to  the 
nose,  and  only  then  when  all  mildet  means  have  failed. 

But  there  is  another,  and  much  better,  method  of 
handling  and  overcoming  the  vices  of  refractory  mules. 
I  refer  to  the  lariat.  Throw  the  noose  over  the  head 
of  the  unruly  mule,  then  draw  him  carefully  up  to  a 
wagon,  as  if  for  the  purpose  of  bridling  him.  In  case 
he  is  extremely  hard  to  bridle,  or  vicious,  throw  an 
additional  lariat  or  rope  over  his  head,  fixing  it  pre- 
cisely as  represented  in  the  drawing.  By  this  method 
you  can  hold  any  mule.  But  even  this  method  had  bet 
ter  be  avoided  unless  where  it  is  absolutely  necessary. 

It  is  now  August,  1866.  "We  are  working  five  hun- 
dred and  fifty-eight  animals,  from  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning  until  seven  o'clock  at  night,  and  out  of  this 
number  we  have  not  got  ten  sore  or  galled  animals. 
The  reason  is,  because  we  do  not  use  a  single  padded 
saddle  or  collar.  Also,  that  the  part  of  the  harness 
that  the  heaviest  strain  comes  on  is  kept  as  smooth  and 
pliable  as  it  is  possible  for  it  to  be.  Look  well  to  your 
drawing-chains,  too,  and  see  that  they  are  kept  of  an 
even  length.  If  your  collar  gets  gummy  or  dirty, 
don't  scrape  it  with  a  knife ;  wash  it,  and  preserve  the 
smooth  surface.  Your  breeching,  or  wheel  harness,  is 
also  another  very  important  part ;  see  that  it  does  not 


60  THE   MULE. 

cut  and  cliafe  the  animal  so  as  to  wear  the  hair  off,  or 
injure  the  skin.  If  yon  get  this  too  tight,  it  is  impos- 
sible for  the  animal  to  stretch  out  and  walk  free. 
Besides  obstructing  the  animal's  gait,  liowever,  the 
straps  will  hold  the  collar  and  hames  so  tight  to  his 
shoulder  as  to  make  him  sore  on  the  top  of  his  neck. 
These  straps  should  always  he  slack  enough  to  allow 
the  mule  perfect  freedom  when  at  his  best  walk. 

And  now  I  liave  a  few  words  to  say  on  Government 
wagons.  Government  wagons,  as  now  made,  can  be 
used  for  other  purposes  besides  the  army.  The  large- 
sized  Government  wagon  is,  it  has  been  proved,  too 
heavy  for  four  hoi-ses.  The  smaller  sized  one  is  nearer 
right ;  but  whenever  yoa  take  an  ordinary  load  on  it 
(the  smaller  one),  and  have  a  rough  country  to  move 
through,  it  will  give  out.  It  is  too  heavy  for  two 
horses  and  a  light  load,  and  yet  not  heavy  enough  to 
carry  twenty-five  hundred  or  three  thousand  pounds,  a 
four-horse  load,  when  the  roads  are  in  any  way  bad. 
They  do  tolerably  well  about  cities,  established  posts, 
and  indeed  anywhere  where  the  roads  are  good,  and 
they  are  not  subject  to  much  strain.  Improvements  on 
the  Government  wagon  have  been  attempted,  but  the 
result  has  been  failure.  The  more  simple  you  can  get 
such  wagons,  the  better,  and  this  is  why  the  original 
yet  stands  as  the  best.  There  is,  however,  great  differ- 
ence in  the  material  used,  and  some  makers  make 
better  wagons  than  others.  The  six  and  eight-mule 
wagon,  the  largest  size  used  for  road  and  field  pur- 
poses, is,  in  my  humble  opinion,  the  very  best  adapted 
to  the  uses  of  our  American  army. 


THE   IvniLE.  Gl 

During  the  rebellion  there  were  a  great  many 
wagons  used  that  were  not  of  the  army  pattern.  One 
of  these,  I  remember,  was  called  the  Wheeling  wagon, 
and  used  to  a  great  extent  for  light  work,  and  did  well. 
On  this  account  many  persons  recommended  them.  I 
could  not,  and  for  this  reason :  they  are  too  compli- 
cated, and  they  are  much  too  light  to  carry  the  ordinary 
load  of  a  six-mule  team.  At  the  end  of  the  war  it  was 
shown  that  the  army  pattern  wagon  had  been  worked 
more,  had  been  repaired  less,  and  was  in  better  condi- 
tion than  any  other  wagon  used.  I  refer  now  to  those 
made  in  Philadelphia,  by  Wilson  &  Childs,  or  Wilson, 
Childs  &  Co.  They  are  known  in  the  army  as  the 
Wilson  wagon.  The  very  best  place  to  test  the  dura- 
bility of  a  wagon  is  on  the  plains.  Run  it  there,  one 
summer,  when  there  is  bnt  little  wet  weather,  where 
there  are  all  kinds  of  roads  to  travel  on  and  loads  to 
carry,  and  if  it  stands  that  it  will  stand  any  thing.  The 
Avagon-brake,  instead  of  the  lock-chain,  is  a  great  and 
very  valuable  improvement  made  during  the  war. 
Having  a  brake  on  the  wagon  saves  the  time  and 
trouble  of  stopping  at  the  top  of  every  hill  to  lock  the 
wheels,  and  again  at  the  bottom  to  unlock  them.  Offi- 
cers of  the  army  know  how  much  trouble  this  used  to 
cause,  how  it  used  to  block  up  the  roads,  and  delay  the 
movements  of  troops  impatient  to  get  ahead.  The  lock- 
chain  ground  out  the  wagon  tire  in  one  spot.  The 
brake  saves  that ;  and  it  also  saves  the  animal's  neck 
from  that  bruising  and  chafing  incident  to  the  dead 
strain  that  was  required  when  dragging  the  locked  wheel. 

There  is  another  difficulty  that  has  been  overcome  by 


62  THE   MTJLE. 

tlie  wagon-brake.  In  stopping  to  lock  wheels  on  the 
top  of  a  hill,  your  train  get  into  disorder.  In  most 
cases,  when  trains  are  moving  on  the  road,  there  is  a 
space  of  ten  or  fifteen  feet  between  the  wagons.  Each 
team,  then,  will  naturally  close  up  that  space  as  it  comes 
to  the  place  for  halting  to  lock.  N^ow,  about  the  time 
the  first  teamster  gets  his  wheel  locked,  the  one  in  the 
rear  of  him  is  dismounting  for  the  same  purpose.  This 
being  repeated  along  the  train,  it  is  not  difiicult  to  see 
how  the  space  must  increase,  and  irregularity  follow. 
The  more  wagons  you  have  to  lock  with  the  drag-chain, 
the  further  you  get  the  teams  apart.  When  you  have 
a  large  body  of  wagons  moving  together,  it  naturally 
follows  that,  with  such  a  halt  as  this,  the  teams  in  the 
rear  must  make  twenty-five  halts,  or  stops,  and  starts, 
for  every  one  that  the  head  team  makes. 

When  the  teamster  driving  the  second  team  gets 
ready  to  lock,  the  first,  or  head  team,  starts  up.  This 
excites  the  mule  of  the  second  to  do  the  same,  and  so 
all  along  the  train.  This  irritates  the  teamster,  and  he 
is  compelled  to  run  up  and  catch  the  wheel-mules  by 
the  head,  to  make  them  stop,  so  that  he  can  lock  his 
wheels.  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  he  will  waste  time  in 
punishing  his  animals  for  what  they  do  not  understand. 
He  never  thinks  for  a  moment  that  the  mule  is  accus- 
tomed to  start  up  when  the  wagon  ahead  of  him  moves, 
and  supposes  he  is  doing  his  duty.  In  many  cases, 
when  he  had  got  his  wheels  locked,  he  had  so  excited 
his  mules  that  they  would  run  down  the  hill,  cripple 
some  of  the  men,  break  the  wagon,  cause  a  ''  smash-up  " 
in  the  train,  and  perhaps  destroy  the  very  rations  and 


THE   MULE.  ^  63 

clotlies  on  wliich  some  poor  soldier's  life  depended.  We 
all  know  what  delay  and  disaster  have  resulted  from  the 
roads  being  blocked  up  in  this  manner.  The  brake, 
thanks  to  the  inventor,  offers  a  remedy  for  all  this.  It 
also  saves  the  neck  and  shoulders  of  every  animal  in  the 
train ;  it  saves  the  feet  of  the  wheelers ;  it  saves  the 
harness  ;  it  saves  the  lead  and  swing  mules  from  being 
stopped  so  quick  that  they  cut  themselves  ;  and  it  saves 
the  wheels  at  least  twenty  per  cent.  Those  who  have  had 
wagons  thrown  over  precipices,  or  labored  and  strug- 
gled in  mud  and  water  two  and  three  hours  at  a  time, 
can  easily  understand  how  time  and  trouble  could  have 
been  saved  if  the  wagon  could  have  been  locked  in  any 
way  after  it  started  over  those  places.  The  best  brake, 
by  all  odds,  is  that  which  fastens  with  a  lever  chain  to 
the  brake-bar.  I  do  not  like  those  which  attach  with  a 
rope,  and  for  the  reason  that  the  lazy  teamster  can  sit 
on  the  saddle-mule  and  lock  and  unlock,  while,  with 
the  chain  and  lever,  he  must  get  off.  In  this  way  he 
relieves  the  saddle-mule's  back. 

We  all  know  that,  in  riding  mules  down  steep  or  long  . 
hills,  you  do  much  to  stiffen  them  up  and  wear  them 
out. 


CHAPTER    yi. 


SOMETHING   MOKE   AEOUT   BREEDING   MULES. 

Befoee  I  close  this  work,  I  desire  to  say  sometliing 
more  about  breeding  mules.  It  has  long  been  a  popu- 
lar error  that  to  get  a  good  mule  colt  you  must  breed 
from  large  mares.  The  average  sized,  compact  mare,  is 
by  all  odds  the  superior  animal  to  breed  mules  from. 
Experience  has  satisfied  me  that  very  large  mules  are 
about  as  useless  for  army  service  as  very  large  men  are 
for  troopers.  You  can  get  no  great  amount  of  service 
out  of  either.  One  is  good  at  destroying  rations  ;  the 
other  at  lowering  haystacks  and  corn-bins.  Of  all  the 
number  we  had  in  the  army,  I  never  saw  six  of  these 
large,  overgrown  mules  that  were  of  much  service.  In- 
deed, I  have  yet  to  see  the  value  in  any  animal  that 
runs  or  rushes  to  an  overgrowth.  The  same  is  true 
with  man,  beast,  or  vegetable.  I  will  get  the  average 
size  of  either  of  them,  and  you  wiU  acknowledge  the 
superiority. 

The  only  advantage  these  large  mares  may  give  to 
the  mule  is  in  the  size  of  the  feet  and  bone  that  they 
may  impart.  The  heavier  you  can  get  the  bone  and 
feet,  the  better.  And  yet  you  can  rarely  get  even  this, 
and  for  the  reason  that  I  have  before  given,  that  the 


THE    MULE.  65 

mare,  in  nineteen  cases  out  of  twenty,  breeds  close  after 
the  jack,  more  especially  in  the  feet  and  legs.  It  makes 
little  difference  how  yon  cross  mares  and  jacks,  the  re- 
sult is  almost  certain  to  be  a  horse's  body,  a  jack's  legs 
and  feet,  a  jack's  ears,  and,  in  most  cases,  a  jack's 
marks. 

^NTature  has  directed  this  crossing  for  the  best,  since 
the  closer  the  mare  breeds  after  the  jack  the  better  the 
mule.  The  highest  marked  mules,  and  the  deepest  of 
the  different  colors,  I  have  invariably  found  to  be  the 
best.  What  is  it,  let  us  inquire,  that  makes  the  Mexi- 
can mule  hardy,  trim,  robust,  well-marked  after  the 
jack,  and  so  serviceable  ?  It  is  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  breeding  from  sound,  serviceable,  compact,  and 
spirited  Mexican  or  mustang  mares.  You  must,  in 
fact,  use  the  same  judgment  in  crossing  these  animals 
as  you  would  if  you  wanted  to  produce  a  good  race  or 
trotting  horse. 

We  are  told,  in  Mason  and  Skinner's  Stud  Book,  that 
in  breeding  mules  the  mares  should  be  large  barrelled, 
small  limbed,  with  a  moderate-sized  head  and  a  good 
forehead.  This,  it  seems  to  me,  wiU  strike  our  officers 
as  a  very  novel  recommendation.  The  mule's  limbs 
and  feet  are  the  identical  parts  you  want  as  large  as 
possible,  as  every  one  that  has  had  much  to  do  with 
the  animal  knows.  You  rarely  find  a  mule  that  has 
legs  as  large  as  a  horse.  But  the  mule,  from  having  a 
horse's  body,  will  fatten  and  fill  up,  and  become  just  as 
heavy  as  the  body  of  an  average-sized  horse.  Having, 
then,  to  carry  this  extra  amount  of  fat  and  flesh  on  the 
slender  legs  and  feet  of  a  jackass,  you  can  easily  see  what 


6G  THE   MULE. 

the  result  must  be.  "No ;  you  will  be  perfectly  safe  iu 
getting  your  mule  as  large-legged  as  you  can.  And  by 
all  means  let  the  mare  you  breed  from  have  a  good, 
sound,  healthy  block  of  a  foot.  Then  the  colt  will 
stand  some  chance  of  inheriting  a  portion  of  it.  It  is 
natural  that  the  larger  you  get  his  feet  the  steadier  he 
will  travel.  Some  persons  will  tell  you  that  these 
small  feet  are  natural,  and  are  best  adapted  to  the  ani- 
mal. But  they  forgot  that  the  mule  is  not  a  natural 
animal,  only  an  invention  of  man.  Let  your  mare  and 
jack  be  each  of  the  average  size,  the  jack  well  marked, 
and  1^0.  1  of  his  kind,  and  I  will  take  the  product  and 
wear  out  any  other  style  of  breed.  Indeed,  you  have 
only  to  appeal  to  your  better  judgment  to  convince 
you  as  to  what  would  result  from  putting  a  jack,  seven 
or  eight  hands  high,  to  a  mare  of  sixteen  or  more. 

I  have  witnessed  some  curious  results  in  mule  breed- 
ing, and  which  it  may  be  well  enough  to  mention  here. 
I  have  seen  frequent  instances  where  one  of  the  very 
best  jacks  in  the  country  had  been  put  to  mares  of  good 
quality  and  spirit.  Putting  them  to  such  contemptible 
animals  seemed  to  degrade  them,  to  destroy  their 
natural  will  and  temper.  The  result  was  a  sort  of  bas- 
tard mule,  a  small-legged,  small-footed,  cowardly  ani- 
mal, inheriting  all  the  vices  of  the  mule  and  none  of 
the  horse's  virtues — the  very  meanest  of  his  kind. 


CHAPTER    YII. 


AKCIENT     HISTOEY    OF    THE    MULE. 

The  mule  seems  to  liave  been  used  by  the  ancients 
in  a  great  variety  of  ways ;  but  what  should  have 
prompted  his  production  must  for  ever  remain  a  mystery. 
Tliat  they  early  discovered  his  great  usefulness  in  making 
long  journeys,  climbing  mountains,  and  crossing  deserts 
of  burnings  and,  when  subsistence  and  water  were  scarce, 
and  horses  would  have  perished,  is  well  established. 
That  he  would  soon  recover  from  the  severe  effects  of 
these  long  and  trying  journeys  must  also  have  been  of 
great  value  in  their  eyes.  But  however  much  they 
valued  him  for  his  usefulness,  they  seem  not  to  have 
had  the  slightest  veneration  for  him,  as  they  had  for. 
some  other  animals.  I  am  led  to  believe,  then,  that  it 
was  his  great  usefulness  in  crossing  the  sandy  deserts 
tliat  led  to  his  production.  It  is  a  proof,  also,  that  where 
the  ass  was  at  hand  there  also  was  the  horse,  or  the 
mule  could  not  have  been  produced.  Any  people  with 
sufficient  knowledge  to  produce  the  mule  would  also 
have  had  sufficient  knowledge  to  discover  the  difference 
Ijetween  him  and  the  horse,  and  would  have  given  the 
preference  to  the  liorse  in  all  service  except  that  I  have 
just  described.     And  yet,  in  the  early  history  of  the 


68.  THE   MULE. 

world,  we  find  men  of  rank,  and  even  rulers,  using  them 
on  state  and  similar  occasions  ;  and  this  when  it  might 
have  been  supposed  that  the  horse,  being  the  nobler 
animal,  would  have  made  more  display. 

The  Scriptures  tell  us  that  Absalom,  when  he  led 
the  rebel  hosts  against  his  father  David,  rode  on  a  mule, 
that  he  rode  under  an  oak,  and  hung  himself  by  the 
hair  of  his  head.  Then,  again,  we  hear  of  the  mule  at 
the  inauguration  of  King  Solomon.  It  is  but  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  the  horse  would  have  been  used  on  that 
great  occasion,  had  he  been  present.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  ass,  or  any  thing 
pertaining  to  him,  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  a  nation 
that  beKeved  they  were  commanded  by  God,  through 
their  prophet  Moses,  not  to  work  the  ox  and  the  ass 
together.  It  must  be  inferred  from  this  that  the  ass 
was  not  held  in  very  high  esteem,  and  that  the  prohibi- 
tion was  for  the  purpose  of  not  degrading  the  ox,  he 
being  of  that  family  of  which  the  perfect  males  were 
used  for  sacrifice.  The  ass,  of  course,  was  never  allowed 
to  appear  on  the  sacred  altar.  And  yet  He  who  came 
to  save  our  fallen  race,  and  open  the  gates  of  heaven, 
and  fulfil  the  words  of  the  prophet,  rode  a  female  of 
this  apparently  degraded  race  of  animals  when  He  made 
his  triumphal  march  into  the  city  of  the  temple  of  the 
living  God. 


THE   MULE. 


List  of  Mules  Received^  Died,  and  Shot,  at  the  Depot  of  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.from  1st  February,  1863,  to  2>\st  July,  1866. 


Month. 

1868. 

1864. 

1865. 

1866. 

1 

% 

S 

(2 

5 

o 

1 
1 

5 

.a 

CO 

> 

1 

Jan  ... 

.. 

.. 

.. 

624 

14 

76 

3,677 

66 

226 

169 

Feb.... 

135 

96 

7 

329 

16 

62 

1,603 

S4 

150 

34 

2 

1 

March. 

2,552 

150 

4 

448 

10 

64 

2,823 

77 

169 

13 

April.. 

2,906 

118 

61 

1,305 

15 

47 

6,102 

106 

223 

29 

1 

May... 

1,087 

56 

46 

2,440 

18 

52 

11,780 

68 

211 

20 

1 

June.. 

3,848 

120 

118 

4,410 

76 

48 

19,304 

178 

49 

2 

July  . . 

1,731 

94 

335 

4,702 

74 

125 

13,398 

462 

68 

62 

Aug... 

5,250 

51 

159 

5,431 

88 

281 

1,275 

284 

23 

•• 

Sept... 

2,884 

72 

248 

1,198 

64 

176 

1,536 

8 

18 

Oct.... 

1,166 

86 

202 

1,468 

81 

134 

876 

Nov... 

2,934 

80 

204 

3,036 

35 

123 

252 

8 

.. 

Dec... 
Total.. 

2,832 

14 

113 

3,923 

66 

158 

324 

4 

.. 

27,275 

887 

1,497 

29,414 

557 

1,296 

62,950 

1,835 

1,137 

829 

4 

1 

Date. 

Received. 

Died. 

Shot. 

1863 

27,275 

29,414 

62,950 

829 

837 

557 

1,835 

.       4 

1,497 

1,296 

1,137 

1 

1864 

1865 

1866 

Total          ..    .. 

119,963 

2.733 

8,931 

70  THE  MULE. 


riCTUBES     OF     SOME     OF      OUR     MOST    CELEBRATED     ARMY 
MULES. 

I  have  had  photographs  taken  of  some  of  our  mules. 
A  number  of  these  animals  performed  extraordinary 
service  in  connection  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
and  the  "Western  Army.  One  of  them,  a  remarkable 
animal,  made  the  great  circuit  of  Sherman's  campaign, 
and  has  an  historical  interest.  I  propose  to  give  you 
these  illustrations  according  to  their  numbers. 

No.  1,  then,  is  a  very  remarkable  six-mule  team. 
It  was  fitted  out  at  Berryville,  Maryland,  early  in  the 
spring  of  1861,  under  the  directions  of  Captain  Saw- 
telle,  A.  Q.  M.  They  are  all  small,  compact  mules, 
and  I  had  them  photographed  in  order  to  show  them 
together.  The  leaders  and  swing,  or,  as  some  call  them, 
the  middle  leaders,  have  been  worked  steadily  together 
in  the  same  team  since  December  31,  1861.  They 
have  also  been  driven  by  the  same  driver,  a  colored 
man,  of  the  name  of  Edward  Wesley  Williams.  He 
was  with  Captain  Sawtelle  until  the  1st  of  March, 
1862  ;  was  then  transferred,  with  his  team,  to  the  City 
of  Washington,  and  placed  under  a  wagon-master  of 
the  name  of  Horn,  who  belonged  to  Harrisburg,  Pa. 
Wesley  took  good  care  of  his  team,  and  was  kept  at 
constant  work  with  it  in  Washington,  until  May  14, 
1862.  He  was  then  transferred,  with  his  team,  to  a 
train  that  was  ordered  to  join  General  McClellan  at 
Fort  Monroe.  He  then  followed  the  fortunes  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  up  the  Peninsula ;  was  at  the 
siege  of  Yorktown,  the  battle  of  Williamsburg,  and  in 


THE   MULE.  71 

the  swamps  of  the  Chickahominy.  He  was  also  in  the 
seven  days'  battles,  and  brought  up  at  Harrison's  Land- 
ing with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  He  then  drove  his 
team  back  to  Fort  Monroe,  where  they  were  shipped, 
with  the  animals  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  for 
Washington.  He  was  set  to  work  as  soon  as  he  reached 
a  landing,  and  participated  in  hauling  ammunition  at 
the  second  battle  of  Bull  Kun.  He  then  followed  the 
army  to  Antietam,  and  from  that  battle-field  to  Freder- 
icksburg, where  he  hauled  ammunition  during  the  ter- 
rible disaster  under  General  Burnside.  The  team  then 
belonged  to  a  train  of  which  John  Dorny  was  wagon- 
master.  "When  General  Hooker  took  command  of  the 
army  this  team  followed  him  through  the  Chancellor- 
ville  and  Chantilly  fights.  It  also  followed  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  until  General  Grant  took  com- 
mand, when  the  train  it  belonged  to  was  sent  to  City 
Point.  This  brings  us  up  to  1864.  It  was  with 
the  army  in  front  of  Petersburg,  and,  during  that  win- 
ter, the  saddle  mule  was  killed  by  the  enemy's  shot 
while  the  team  was  going  for  a  load  of  wood.  In  short, 
they  were  worked  every  day  until  Richmond  was  taken. 
In  June,  1865,  they  were  transferred  back  to  the  City 
of  Washington.  It  is  now  August,  1866,  and  they  are 
still  working  in  the  train,  and  make  one  of  the  very  best 
teams  we  have.  I  refer  now  to  the  leaders  and  swing 
mules,  as  they  are  the  only  four  that  are  together,  and 
that  followed  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  through  all  its 
campaigns.  There  is  not  a  mule  of  the  four  that  is 
over  fourteen  and  a  half  hands  high,  and  not  one  that 
weighs  over  nine  hundred  pounds.     This  team,  I  ought 


Y2  THE   MULE. 

to  add  here,  has  frequently  been  without  a  bite  of  hay 
or  grain  for  four  or  five  days,  and  nothing  to  eat  but 
what  they  could  pick  up  along  the  road.  And  there  are 
instances  when  they  have  been  twenty-four  hours  with- 
out a  sup  of  water.  The  experienced  eye  will  see  that 
they  have  round,  compact  bodies,  and  stand  well  on 
their  feet. 

'No.  2  is  the  leader  of  the  team,  and  for  light  work  on 
the  prairies,  packing,  or  any  similar  work,  is  a  model 
mule.  Indeed,  she  cannot  be  surpassed.  Her  bone  and 
muscle  is  full,  and  she  is  not  inclined  to  run  to  flesh. 

No,  3  is  the  off-leader  of  the  same  team.  She  is  a 
good  eater,  tough,  hardy,  and  a  good  worker, — in  every 
way  a  first-class  mule.  I  would  advise  persons  pur- 
chasing mules  to  notice  her  form.  She  is  a  little  sprung 
in  the  knees ;  but  this  has  in  no  way  interfered  with 
her  working.  This  was  occasioned  by  allowing  the  heels 
on  her  fore-feet  to  grow  out  too  much.  During,  and  for 
some  time  after,  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run,  the  train 
to  which  she  belonged  was  kept  at  very  hard  work.  The 
shoes  that  were  on  her  at  that  time,  to  use  the  driver's 
own  language,  were  "put  on  to  stay."  Indeed,  he 
informed  me  that  they  were  on  so  long,  that  he  con- 
cluded they  had  grown  to  the  feet.  And  in  this  case, 
as  in  many  others,  for  want  of  a  little  knowledge  of  the 
peculiarities  of  a  mule's  feet,  and  the  injury  that  results 
from  over-growth,  the  animal  had  to  suffer,  and  was 
permanently  injured. 

No.  4  is  the  off-swing,  or  middle-leader  mule.  She 
is  perfectly  sound,  of  good  height,  a  good  eater,  and  a 
great  worker.      She  is  also  well  adapted  for  packing, 


^  l' 


'Ikkf 


-''  ^m,- 


* 


(#),|i,'»!iii'^te^', 


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i\i!!Mriri'' 


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THE    MULE.  73 

and  a  tolerably  good  rider.  Her  ears  and  eyes  are  of 
the  very  finest  kind,  and  her  whole  head  indicates  intel- 
ligence. Her  front  parts  are  perfection  itself.  She  is 
also  remarkably  kind. 

No.  5  is  the  near  swing  mule,  or  middle  leader.  She 
is  what  is  called  a  mouse-color,  and  is  the  fattest  mule 
in  the  team.  She  underwent  the  entire  campaigns  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  is  to-day  without  a 
blemish,  and  capable  of  doing  as  much  work  as  any 
mule  in  the  pack.  Her  powers  of  endurance,  as  well  as 
her  ability  to  withstand  starvation  and  abuse,  are 
beyond  description.  I  have  had  mules  of  her  build 
with  me  in  trains,  in  the  Western  Territories,  that 
endured  hardship  and  starvation  to  an  extent  almost 
incredible ;  and  yet  they  were  remarkably  kind  when 
well  treated,  and  would  follow  me  like  dogs,  and, 
indeed,  try  to  show  me  how  much  they  could  endure 
without  flinching. 

No.  6  is  an  off-wheel  mule,  of  ordinary  quality.  I 
had  to  take  the  spotted  mules  from  the  wheels  of  this 
team,  as  they  were  not  equal  to  the  work  required  of 
them,  and  got  very  sore  in  front. 

'No.  T  is  a  spotted,  or,  as  the  Mexicans  call  them,  a 
calico  mule.  He  and  his  mate  were  sent  to  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  about  the  time  General  Grant  took 
command  of  it.  They  were  worked  as  wheel 
mules  in  the  team  until  1866,  when  this  one,  like 
nearly  all  spotted  animals,  showed  his  w^eak  parts  by 
letting  up  in  his  fore-feet,  which  became  contracted  to 
such  an  extent  that  the  surgeon  had  to  cut  them  nearly 
off.      We  were  compelled  to  let  him  go  barefoot  until 


74  THE   MULE. 

they  grew  out.  This  is  one  of  the  spotted  mules  I  have 
referred  to  before.     You  never  can  rely  on  them. 

'No.  8  is  the  mate  of  No.  7.  His  head,  ears,  and 
front  shoulder  indicate  him  to  be  of  Canadian  stock. 
His  neck  and  front  shoulder,  as  you  will  see,  are  fault- 
less. But  on  looking  closely  at  his  eyes  you  will  find 
them  to  be  sore,  and  running  water  continually.  I 
have  noticed  that  nearly  all  animals  in  the  army  that 
are  marked  in  this  way  have  weak  and  inflamed  eyes. 
A  farmer  should  never  purchase  them. 

No.  9  is  a  swing  mule  that  has  undergone  a  great 
deal  of  hardship.  She  is  tolerably  well  formed  but 
inclined  to  kick.  She  is  also  hard  to  keep  in  good 
condition,  and  unless  great  care  is  taken  with  her  she 
would  give  out  in  the  hind  feet,  where  she  now  shows 
considerable  fullness.  When  a  mule's  neck  lacks  the 
ordinary  thickness  there  must  be  some  direct  cause  for 
it,  and  you  should  set  about  finding  out  what  it  ia. 
Lack  of  food  is  sometimes  the  cause.  But  in  my 
opinion  creased  neck  very  frequently  so  affects  the 
passages  to  and  from  the  head,  that  the  organs  that 
should  work  in  depositing  flesh,  fat,  or  muscle  become 
deranged,  and  the  neck  becomes  weak  and  in  a  dis- 
ordered state.  Purchasers  would  do  well  to  discard 
these  creased-neck  mules. 

No.  10  is  an  animal  of  an  entirely  diflferent  character 
from  E"o.  9.  She  is  remarkably  gentle  and  tractable, 
of  good  form,  and  great  endurance,  and  will  work  in 
any  way.  She  is  fifteen  hands  and  one  inch  high, 
weighs  ten  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  and  is  seven 
years  old.     This  celebrated  animal  went  through  all 


THE  MULE.  75 

of  General  Sherman's  campaigns,  and  is  as  sound  and 
active  to-day  as  a  four-year  old. 

'No,  11  is  one  of  those  peculiar  animals  I  have 
described  elsewhere.  He  is  all  bones  and  belly.  His 
legs  are  long,  and  of  little  use  as  legs.  He  is  five  years 
old,  sixteen  and  a  half  hands  high,  and  weighs  thirteen 
hundred  and  ninety  pounds.  One  of  his  hind  legs 
shows  a  thorough  pin.  His  hocks  are  all  out  of  shape, 
and  his  legs  are  stuck  into  his  hoofs  on  nearly  the  same 
principle  that  you  stick  a  post  into  the  ground.  The 
reason  why  his  pastern-joints  show  so  straight  is,  that 
the  heels  on  the  hind  feet  have  been  badly  trimmed 
when  shaving.  They  too  have  been  permitted  to  grow 
too  long,  and  thus  he  is  thrown  into  the  position  you 
now  see  him.  This  mule  belongs  to  a  class  that  is 
raised  to  a  considerable  extent,  and  prized  very  highly 
in  Pennsylvania.  In  the  army  they  were  of  very  little 
use  except  to  devour  forage. 

No.  12  is  what  may  be  called  a  pack  mule  of  the 
first  class.  He  is  seven  years  old,  fifteen  and  a  half 
hands  high,  and  weighs  eleven  hundred  and  fifty-six 
pounds.  This  animal  has  endured  almost  incredible 
hardships.  He  is  made  for  it,  as  you  will  readily  see. 
He  is  what  is  called  a  portly  mule,  but  is  not  inclined 
to  run  to  belly  unless  over-fed  and  not  worked.  He 
has  a  remarkably  kind  disposition,  is  healthy,  and  a 
good  feeder.  This  animal  has  but  one  evil  to  contend 
with.  His  off  hind  foot  has  grown  too  long,  and  plainly 
shows  how  much  too  far  back  if  throws  the  pastern- 
joint.  This  is  in  a  measure  the  effect  of  bad  shoeing. 
It  is  very  rare  to  find  a  blacksmith  who  discovers  this 


76  THE   MULE. 

fact  until  it  is  too  late.  Now  there  is  nothing  more 
easy  than  to  ruin  a  mule  by  letting  his  toes  grow 
too  long.  Doctor  L.  H.  Braley,  chief  veterinary  sur- 
geon of  the  army,  is  now  developing  a  plan  for 
shoeing  mules,  which  I  consider  the  very  best  that  has 
been  suggested.  His  treatment  of  the  foot  when  well, 
and  how  to  keep  it  so ;  and  how  to  treat  the  foot  by 
shoeing  when  it  becomes  injured,  is  the  best  that  can 
be  adopted. 

No.  13  is  a  mule  that  has  been  worked  in  a  two-mule 
train  which  has  been  in  my  charge  for  about  a 
year.  She  was  previously  worked  in  a  six-mule  train, 
as  the  off- wheel  mule.  She  is  five  years  old,  rising ; 
size,  fifteen  hands  and  three  inches  high,  and  weighs 
fourteen  hundred  and  twenty-two  pounds.  She  was 
received  into  the  Government  service  at  Wheeling, 
"Virginia,  and  when  shipped  or  transferred  to  this  depot, 
with  four  hundred  others,  was  but  two  years  old,  rising 
three.  She  was  worked,  at  least  a  year  or  more,  too 
young ;  and  to  this  cause  I  attribute  certain  injuries 
w^hich  I  shall  speak  of  hereafter.  This  mule,  with  two 
hundred  others,  was  transferred  to  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac, and  went  through  its  campaigns  from  1864  up  to  the 
fall  of  Eichmond.  She  is  an  excellent  worker,  and  her 
neck,  head,  and  fore  shoulders  are  as  fine  as  can  be. 
Indeed,  they  are  a  perfect  development  of  the  horse. 
But  her  hips  or  flank  joints  are  very  deficient.  Owing 
to  her  being  worked  too  young,  the  muscles  of  the  hind 
legs  have  given  way,  and  they  have  become  crooked. 
This  is  done  frequently  by  the  animal  being  placed  as 
a  wheeler  when  too  young,  and  holding  back  under  a 


THE   MULE.  77 

heavy  load.  If  you  want  to  see  how  quick  you  can 
ruin  young  mules,  place  them  in  the  wheels. 

'No.  14  is  the  off-wheel  mule  of  a  six-mule  team.  I 
had  this  mule  photographed  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
the  effects  of  hitching  animals  so  short  to  the  team  that 
the  swingle-tree  will  strike  or  rest  on  their  hocks.  I  re- 
ferred to  this  great  evil  in  another  place.  This  mule 
is  but  six  years  old,  sixteen  hands  high,  and  weighs 
nearly  sixteen  hundred  pounds.  Aside  from  the  hocks, 
she  is  the  best  made  and  the  best  looking  mule  in  the 
park ;  and  is  also  a  remarkably  good  worker.  You 
will  notice,  however,  that  the  caps  of  her  hocks  are  so 
swollen  and  calloused  by  the  action  of  the  swingle-tree 
as  to  make  them  permanently  disfigured.  The  position 
I  have  placed  this  mule  in,  as  relates  to  the  wagon 
wheel,  is  the  proper  position  to  put  all  wild,  green,  con- 
trary or  stubborn  mules  in  when  they  are  hard  to  bridle. 

This  is  the  severest  use  to  which  a  lariat  can  be  put 
on  mule  or  horse.  The  person  using  it,  however,  should 
be  careful  to  see  that  it  sets  well  back  to  the  shoulder 
of  the  animal.  I  refer  now  to  the  part  of  the  loop  that 
is  around  the  neck.  The  end  of  the  lariat  should  al- 
ways be  held  by  a  man,  and  not  made  fast  to  any  part 
of  the  wagon,  so  that  if  the  animal  falls  or  throws  him- 
self, you  can  slack  up  the  lariat  and  save  him  from 
injury.  Three  applications  of  the  buck  will  conquer 
them  so  thoroughly  that  you  will  have  little  trouble 
afterwards.  Be  careful  to  keep  the  lariat,  in  front,  as 
high  as  the  mule's  breast ;  and  see  also  that  they  are 
pulled  up  close  to  the  front  wheel  before  pulling  it 
through  the  hind  wheel. 


78  THE  MULE. 

DISEASES  COMMON  TO  THE  MULE,  AND  HOW  THEY  SHOULD 
BE  TREATED. 

The  mule  does  not  differ  materially  from  the  horse 
ill  the  diseases  he  is  afflicted  with.  He  however  suffers 
less  from  them,  owing  to  lack  of  sensibility.  It  may 
be  useful  here  to  make  a  few  remarks  on  the  various 
diseases  he  is  subject  to,  and  to  recommend  a  course  of 
treatment  which  I  have  practiced  and  seen  practiced, 
and  which  I  believe  is  the  best  that  can  be  applied. 

DISTEMPER   IN    COLTS. 

This  disease  is  peculiar  to  young  mules.  Its  symp- 
toms develop  with  soreness  and  swelling  of  the  glands 
of  the  throat,  a  cough,  difficulty  of  swallowing,  dis- 
charging at  the  nostrils,  and  general  prostration.  If 
not  properly  treated  it  is  surely  fatal. 

Treatment  : — Give  light  bran  mashes,  plenty  of 
common  salt,  and  keep  the  animal  in  a  warm  and  dry 
stable.  You  need  not  clothe,  for  the  mule,  unlike  the 
horse,  is  not  used  to  clothing.  If  the  swelling  under 
the  throat  shows  a  disposition  to  ulcerate,  which  it 
generally  does,  do  nothing  to  prevent  it.  Encourage 
the  ulcer,  and  let  it  come  to  a  head  gradually,  for  this  is 
the  easiest  and  most  natural  way  that  the  trouble,  which 
at  first  seems  to  pervade  the  whole  system,  can  be  got 
rid  of.  When  the  ulcer  appears  soft  enough  to  lance, 
do  so,  and  be  careful  to  avoid  the  glands  and  veins. 
Lance  through  the  skin  in  the  soft  spot,  which  appears 
almost  ready  to  break.     If  the  throat  is  at  any  time  so 


THE   MULE.  79 

swollen  as  to  render  swallowing  difficult,  give  water 
frequently,  about  milk  warm,  with  nourishing  feed  of 
oats,  corn,  or  rye  meal — the  last  is  the  best.  If  this 
treatment,  which  is  very  simple,  be  carefully  carried 
out,  few  animals  will  fail  to  recover. 

CATARRH    OR    CX)LDS. 

This  disease  seldom  attacks  the  mule.  We  have  had 
many  thousands  of  them  in  camp,  and  out  of  the  whole 
number,  I  do  not  recollect  of  a  case  where  it  either 
destroyed  or  disabled  a  single  animal.  In  fact,  it  is  a 
question  with  me  whether  mules  will  take  cold  when 
kept  as  the  Government  keeps  them — camped  out,  or 
standing  in  sheds  where  the  temperature  is  the  same  as 
outdoors. 

GLANDERS. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  destructive  of  diseases  with 
which  the  horse  family  is  afflicted,  and  one  that  has  set 
the  best  veterinary  skill  of  the  world  at  defiance.  A 
remedy  for  it  has  yet  to  be  discovered.  I  have  deemed 
it  proper  here,  however,  to  carefully  describe  its  symp- 
toms, and  to  recommend  that  all  animals  showing  symp- 
toms of  it  be  kept  by  themselves  until  their  case  be 
definitely  ascertained.  When  you  have  ascertained  to 
a  certainty  that  they  are  afflicted  with  the  disease,  de- 
stroy them  as  quick  as  possible.  See,  too,  that  the 
place  where  they  have  been  kept  is  thoroughly  cleansed 
and  sprinkled  with  lime,  for  the  disease  is  contagious, 
and  the  slightest  particle  of  virus  will  spread  it  anew. 


80  THE    MULE, 

Farcy  is  but  one  stage  of  tliis  terrible  disease,  but  is  not 
necessarily  fatal  while  in  this  stage.  It  should,  how- 
ever, be  treated  with  great  care  and  caution.  Farcy 
can  also  be  conveyed  to  others  by  inoculation.  Any 
one  who  has  had  the  field  for  observation  the  author  has 
for  the  last  four  years,  would  become  convinced  that 
the  recommendations  I  am  about  to  make  describe  the 
only  course  to  be  taken  with  this  contagious  disease. 
The  number  of  its  victims  under  my  observation  were 
counted  by  thousands.  All  that  can  be  done  is  to  pre- 
vent, if  possible,  the  disease  taking  place,  and  to  destroy 
when  ascertained  to  a  certainty  that  the  animal  has 
contracted  it.  I  would  say  here,  however,  that  this  sub- 
ject will  soon  be  thoroughly  handled  in  a  work  soon  to  be 
]3ublished  by  Doctor  Braley,  head  veterinary  surgeon 
of  the  army.  He  will  undoubtedly  throw  some  light 
on  the  subject  that  has  not  yet  appeared  in  print. 

SYMPTOMS. 

First : — When  it  appears  in  a  natural  form,  without 
the  agency  of  contagion  or  inoculation,  dryness  of  the 
skin,  entire  omission  of  insensible  perspiration,  starring 
of  the  coat.  Sometimes  slight  discoloring  can  be  ob- 
served about  the  forehead  and  lower  part  of  the  ears. 
Drowsiness,  want  of  lustre  in  the  eye,  slight  swelling  on 
the  inside  of  the  hind  legs,  extending  iip  to  the  bu-boa. 
This  condition  of  things  may  continue  for  several  days, 
and  will  be  followed  by  enlargement  between  the  legs. 
The  iiiflanimation  incident  to  this  may  entirely  subside, 
or  it  may  continue  to  enlarge,  and  break  out  in  ulcers 


THE   MULE.  81 

on  the  lactiles  of  the  lymphatic,  which  accompanieg 
the  large  veins.  In  the  last  case  it  has  appeared  in  the 
form  of  Farcy.  This  being  the  case,  the  countenance 
assumes  a  more  cheerful  look,  and  the  animal  otherwise 
shows  signs  of  relief  from  the  discharges  of  poisonous 
matter.  If  it  remain  in  this  state,  death  is  not  generally 
the  result.  If  the  system  be  toned  up  it  will  sometimes 
heal,  and  the  animal  will  seem  to  be  in  a  recovering 
state  of  health.  Yet,  from  watching  the  symptoms  and 
general  health  of  the  animal  afterwards,  you  will  be 
convinced  that  the  disease  is  only  checked,  not  eradi- 
cated. Acting  in  the  system,  it  only  waits  a  favorable 
opportunity  to  act  as  a  secondary  agent  in  colds,  gene- 
ral debility,  or  exposure,  when  it  will  make  its  appear- 
ance and  produce  death. 

But  in  the  first  case,  as  shown  by  the  swelling  in  the 
hind  legs,  if  the  swelling  disappear,  and  general  debility 
of  the  system  continues  ;  if  the  eyes  grow  more  drowsy, 
and  discharge  from  the  lower  corners  ;  and  if  this  is 
followed  by  discharge  from  the  nostrils,  slight  swelling 
and  hardening  of  the  sub-maxillary  glands,  which  are 
between  the  under  jaws,  then  it  is  clearly  developed 
glanders.  All  the  glands  in  the  body  have  now  become 
involved  or  poisoned,  and  death  must  follow  in  the 
course  of  ten  or  fifteen  days,  as  the  constitution  of  the 
animal  may  be  in  a  condition  to  combat  the  disease. 

If  this  disease  be  annoyed  by  inoculation  from  the 
fo.rcy  heads  of  farcied  animals  into  suppurating  sores 
on  other  animals,  it  will  be  very  slow  in  its  progress, 
especially  if  it  attack  the  other  in  a  region  remote. from 
the  lymphatic.      If  in  a  saddle-gall,  it  ^ill  make  sores 

4* 


82  THE   MULE. 

very  difficult  to  heal.  If  there  is  any  such  thing  as 
checking  the  disease  in  its  progress,  it  is  in  these  three 
cases. 

I  have  observed  that  when  it  has  been  taken  in  a 
sore  mouth  it  has  followed  down  the  cheek  to  the  sub- 
maxillary gland,  and  ended  in  a  clear  case  of  glanders 
or  farcy.  There  is  another  form  in  which  this  disease 
can  be  taken,  and  which  is,  of  all  others,  the  most 
treacherous  and  dangerous,  yet  never  producing  death 
without  the  agency  of  other  diseases — always  carrying 
with  it  the  germs  of  infection,  and  ready  to  convey  it  to 
debilitated  subjects  and  cause  their  death.  The  animal 
will  still  live  himself,  and  show  no  sign  of  disease  further 
than  I  am  about  to  describe  in  the  position.  It  is  that 
which  is  taken  in  at  the  nostrils  and  attacks  the  sub- 
maxillary glands,  which  become  enlarged  and  will 
remain  so.  When  these  become  overloaded  there  will 
be  a  discharge  at  the  nose.  That  being  thrown  off,  it 
may  be  some  time  before  any  further  discharge  will  be 
seen  from  the  same  source.  In  some  cases,  when  the 
discharge  is  constant,  this  can  be  easily  distinguished 
from  gleet  or  ozena,  from  the  healthy  and  natural  appear- 
ance of  the  membranes  of  the  nose,  which  at  first  are 
pale,  then  become  fiery  red  or  purple.  In  gleet  the 
discharges  from  the  nostrils,  as  in  ozena,  are  of  a  very  light 
color.  In  glanders  they  are  first  of  a  deep  yellow,  then 
of  a  dirty  gray — almost  slate  color. 

Mules  affected  with  glanders  of  this  kind,  although  it 
may  seem  hard  from  their  otherwise  healthy  appear- 
ance, should  be  destroyed.  They  indeed  carry  with 
them  the  germs  of  infection  and  death,  without  any 


THE   MULE.  83 

visible  marks  in  their  appearance  to  warn  those  who 
have  the  care  of  animals  against  their  danger. 


TEETHING. 

As  mules  seldom  change  hands  to  any  great  extent 
until  two  or  three  years  old,  it  is  not  deemed  necessary 
here  to  say  any  thing  of  their  age  until  they  have 
reached  two  years,  so  as  to  give  the  inexperienced  a 
wider  scope.  The  mule's  mouth  undergoes  exactly  the 
same  changes  as  the  horse's.  Between  the  ages  of  two 
and  three  these  changes  begin  to  take  place  in  the 
mule's  mouth.  The  front  incisor  teeth,  two  above  and 
two  below,  are  replaced  by  the  horse  for  permanent 
teeth.  These  teeth  are  larger  than  the  others,  have  two 
grooves  in  the  outer  converse  surface,  and  the  mark  is 
long,  narrow,  deep,  and  black.  Not  having  attained 
their  full  growth,  they  are  somewhat  lower  than  the 
others,  the  mark  in  the  two  next  nippers  being  nearly 
worn  out,  and  is  also  wearing  away  in  the  corner 
nippers. 

A  mule  at  three  years  old  ought  to  have  the  central 
permanent  nippers  growing,  the  other  two  pairs  uniting, 
six  grinders  in  each  jaw,  above  and  below,  the  first  and 
fifth  level  with  the  others,  and  the  sixth  protruding. 
As  the  permanent  nippers  wear  and  continue  to  grow, 
a  narrow  portion  of  the  cone-shaped  tooth  is  exposed  to 
the  attrition  ;  and  they  look  as  if  they  had  been  com- 
pressed. This  is  not  so,  however ;  the  mark  of  some 
gradiially  disappears  as  the  pit  is  worn  away.     At  the 


84  THE   MULE. 

age  of  three  and  a  half  or  four  years  the  next  pair  of 
nippers  will  be  changed,  and  the  month  at  that  time 
cannot  he  mistaken.  The  central  nippers  will  have 
nearly  attained  their  full  growth,  and  a  vacuity  will  be 
laft  where  the  second  stood ;  or,  they  will  begin  to  peep 
above  the  gum,  and  the  corner  ones  will  be  diminished 
in  breadth  and  worn  down,  the  mark  becoming  small 
and  faint.  At  this  period  also  the  second  pair  of  grind- 
ers will  be  shed.  At  four  years  the  central  nippers  will 
be  fully  developed,  the  sharp  edges  somewhat  worn  off, 
and  the  marks  shorter,  wider,  and  fainter.  The  next 
pair  will  be  up,  but  they  will  be  small,  with  the  mark 
deep  and  extending  quite  across.  Their  comer  nippers 
will  be  larger  than  the  inside  ones,  yet  smaller  than 
they  were,  and  flat,  and  nearly  worn  out.  The  sixth 
grinder  will  have  risen  to  a  level  with  the  others ;  and 
the  tushes  will  begin  to  appear  in  the  male  animal. 
The  female  seldom  has  them,  although  the  germ  is 
always  present  in  the  jaw.  At  four  years  and  a  half, 
or  between  that  and  five,  the  last  important  change 
takes  place  in  the  mouth  of  the  mule.  The  corner  nip- 
pers are  shed,  and  the  permanent  ones  begin  to  appear. 
When  the  central  nippers  are  considerably  worn,  and 
the  next  pair  are  showing  marks  of  wear,  the  tush  will 
have  protruded,  and  will  generally  be  a  full  half  inch  in 
height.  Externally  it  has  a  rounded  prominence,  with 
a  groove  on  either  side,  and  is  evidently  hollow  within. 
At  six  years  old  tlie  mark  on  the  central  nippers  is 
worn  out.  There  will,  however,  still  be  a  difference  of 
color  in  the  center  of  the  tooth.  The  cement  filling  up 
the  hole  made  by  the  dipping  in  of  the  enamel,  will 


THE   MULE.  85 

present  a  browner  hue  than  the  other  part  of  the  tooth. 
It  will  be  surrounded  by  an  edge  of  enamel,  and  there 
will  remain  a  little  depression  in  the  center,  and  also  a 
depression  around  the  case  of  the  enamel.  But  the 
deep  hole  in  the  center  of  the  enamel,  with  the  black- 
ened surface  it  presents,  and  the  elevated  edge  of  the 
enamel,  wdll  have  disappeared.  The  mule  may  now  be 
said  to  have  a  perfect  mouth,  all  the  teeth  being  pro- 
duced and  fully  grown. 

What  I  have  said  above  must  not  be  taken  as  a  posi- 
tive guide  in  all  cases,  for  mules'  mouths  are  frequently 
torn,  twisted,  smashed,  and  knocked  into  all  kinds  of 
shapes  by  cruel  treatment,  and  the  inexperience,  to  use 
no  harsher  term,  of  those  who  have  charge  of  them. 
Indeed,  I  have  known  cases  of  cruelty  so  severe  that 
it  were  impossible  to  tell  the  age  of  the  animal  from  his 
teeth. 

At  seven  years  old  the  mark,  in  the  way  in  which  I 
have  described  it,  is  worn  out  in  the  four  central  nip- 
pers, and  is  also  fast  wearing  away  in  the  corner  teeth. 
I  refer  now  to  a  natural  mouth  that  has  not  been  sub- 
jected to  injuries.  At  eight  years  old  the  mark  is  gone 
from  all  the  bottom  nippers,  and  may  be  said  to  be 
quite  out  of  the  mouth.  There  is  nothing  remaining  in 
the  bottom  nippers  by  which  the  age  of  the  mule  can 
be  positively  ascertained.  The  tushes  are  a  poor  guide 
at  any  time  in  the  hfe  of  the  animal  to  ascertain  his 
age  by ;  they,  more  than  any  other  of  the  teeth,  being 
most  exposed  to  the  injuries  I  l\ave  referred  to.  From 
this  time  forward,  the  changes  that  take  place  in  the 
teetli  may  bo  of  some  assistance  in  forming  an  opinion; 


86  THE  :^ruLE. 

but  there  are  no  marks  in  tlie  teeth  by  which  a  year, 
more  or  less,  can  be  positively  ascertained.  You  can 
ascertain  almost  as  much  from  the  general  appearance 
of  the  animal  as  from  an  examination  of  the  mouth. 
The  mule,  if  he  be  long-lived,  has  the  same  effect  in 
changing  his  general  appearance  from  youth  to  old  age 
as  is  shown  on  the  rest  of  the  animal  creation. 

DISEASES    OF   THE   TEETH. 

There  are  few  if  any  diseases  to  which  the  mule's 
teeth  are  subject,  after  the  permanent  teeth  are  de- 
veloped ;  but  during  the  time  of  their  changes  I  have 
been  led  to  believe  that  he  sufiers  more  inconvenience, 
or  at  least  as  much  as  any  other  animal — not  so  much 
on  account  of  the  suffering  that  nature  inflicts  upon 
him,  as  through  the  inexperience  and  cruelty  of  those 
who  are  generally  intrusted  with  his  care.  I  will 
here  speak  first  of  lampass.  The  animal's  mouth  is 
made  sore  and  sensitive  by  teething ;  and  this  irritation 
and  soreness  is  increased  by  the  use  of  improper  bits. 
As  if  this  were  not  enough,  resort  is  had  to  that  barbar- 
ous and  inhuman  practice  of  burning  out  lampass.  This 
I  do,  and  always  have  protested  against.  If  the  gums 
are  swollen  from  the  cutting  of  teeth,  which  is  about  all 
the  cause  for  their  inflamed  and  enlarged  appearance, 
a  light  stroke  of  a  lancet  or  sharp  knife  over  the  gums, 
at  a  point  where  the  teeth  are  forcing  their  way 
through,  and  a  little  regard  to  the  animal's  diet,  will 
be  all  that  is  necessary.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  that 
at  this  time  tlio  animal's  mouth  is  too  sore  and  sensitive 


THE   MULE.  87 

to  masticate  hard  food,  sucli  as  corn.  With  the  de- 
velopment of  the  teeth,  however,  the  lampass  will 
generally  disappear. 

THE    EYE. 

Mules  are  remarkable  for  having  good  eyes.  Occa- 
sionally they  become  inflamed  and  sore.  In  such  cases 
the  application  of  cold  water,  and  the  removing  of  the 
cause,  whether  it  be  from  chafing  of  the  blinders, 
forcing  the  blood  to  the  head  through  the  influence  of 
badly  fitting  collars,  or  any  other  cause  known,  is  all 
I  can  recommend  in  their  case. 

THE   TONGUE. 

Mules  suffer  much  from  injury  to  the  tongue,  caused 
by  the  bad  treatment  of  those  who  have  charge  of  them, 
and  also  from  sore  mouth,  produced  in  the  same  man- 
ner. The  best  thing  for  this  is  a  light  decoction  of 
white-oak  bark,  applied  with  a  sponge  to  the  sore  parts. 
Charcoal,  mixed  in  water,  and  applied  in  the  same 
manner,  is  good.  Any  quantity  of  this  can  be  used,  as 
it  is  not  dangerous.  If  possible,  give  the  animal  nourish- 
ing gruels,  or  bran  mashes ;  and,  above  all,  keep  the  bit 
out  of  the  mouth  until  it  is  perfectly  healed. 

POLL-EVIL. 

This  is  a  disease  the  nmle  more^  than  all  other  animals 
is  subject  to.  This  is  more  particularly  so  with  those 
brought  into  the  service  of  the  Government  unbroken. 


bo  THE   MULE. 

It  will  be  very  easily  seen  that  the  necessary  course  of 
training,  halter-breaking,  &c.,  will  expose  them  to 
many  of  the  causes  of  this  disease.  Aside  from  this, 
the  inhuman  treatment  of  teamsters,  and  others  who 
liave  charge  of  them,  frequently  produces  it  in  its  worst 
form.  It  begins  with  an  ulcer  or  sore  at  the  junction 
where  the  head  and  neck  join ;  and  from  its  position, 
more  than  any  other  cause,  is  very  difficult  to  heal. 
The  first  thing  to  be  done,  when  the  swelling  appears, 
is  to  use  hot  fomentations.  If  these  are  not  at  hand, 
use  cold  water  frequently.  Keep  the  bridle  and  halter 
from  tlie  parts.  In  case  inflammation  cannot  be  abated, 
and  ulceration  takes  place,  the  only  means  to  effect  a 
cure,  with  safety  and  certainty,  is  by  the  use  of  the 
seton.  This  should  be  applied  only  by  a  hand  well 
skilled  in  the  use  of  it.  The  person  should  also  well 
understand  the  anatomy  of  the  parts,  as  injuries  com- 
mitted with  the  seton-needle,  in  those  parts,  are  often 
more  serious  and  more  difficult  of  cure  than  the  disease 
caused  by  the  first  injury. 

FISTULA. 

This  is  a  disease  the  mule  is  more  subject  to  than  any 
other  animal  in  Government  use.  And  this,  on  account 
of  his  being  used  as  a  beast  of  burden  by  almost  all 
nations  and  classes  of  people,  and  because  he  is  the 
worst  cared  for.  Fistula  is  the  result  of  a  bruise.  Some 
animals  have  been  known  to  produce  it  by  rolling  on 
stones  and  other  hard  substances.  It  generally  makes 
is  appearance  first  in  the  way  of  a  rise  or  swelling 


THE   iriJLE.  89 

where  the  saddle  has  been  allowed  to  press  too  hard  on 
the  withers,  and  especially  when  the  animal  has  high 
and  lean  ones.  As  the  animal  becomes  reduced  in  flesh, 
the  withers,  as  a  matter  of  course,  are  more  exposed 
and  appear  higher,  on  account  of  the  muscle  wasting 
from  each  side  of  the  back-bone.  This,  under  the  sad- 
dle, can  be  remedied  to  a  great  extent,  bj  adding  an  ad- 
ditional fold  to  the  saddle  blanket,  or  in  making  the  pad 
of  the  saddle  high  enough  to  keep  it  from  the  withers. 
In  packing  with  the  pack-saddle  this  is  more  difficult, 
as  the  weight  is  generally  a  dead,  heavy  substance,  and 
as  the  animal  steps  low  or  high,  the  pack  does  the  same. 
Much,  however,  might  be  done  by  care  in  packing,  to 
prevent  injury  to  the  withers  and  bruising  of  the  back- 
bone. TV  hen  the  withers  begin  to  swell  and  inflamma- 
tion sets  in,  or  a  tumor  begins  to  form,  the  whole  may- 
be driven  away  and  the  fistula  scattered  or  avoided  by 
frequent  or  almost  constant  applications  of  cold  water — 
the  same  as  is  recommended  in  poll- evil.  But  if,  in 
despite  of  this,  the  swelling  should  continue  or  become 
larger,  warm  fomentations,  poultices,  and  stimulating 
embrocations  should  be  applied,  in  order  to  bring  the 
protuberance  to  its  full  formation  as  soon  as  possible. 
When  full,  a  seton  should  be  passed,  by  a  skillful  hand, 
fi-om  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the  tumor,  so  that  all  the 
pus  may  have  free  access  of  escape.  The  incision 
should  be  kept  free  until  all  the  matter  has  escaped  and 
the  wound  shows  signs  of  healing.  The  after  treatment 
must  be  similar  to  that  recommended  in  the  case  of 
poll-evil.  The  above  treatment,  if  properly  admin- 
istered, will  in  nearly  all  cases  of  fistula  effect  a  cure. 


90  THE  MULE. 

COLLAE-GALLS. 

Sore  necks,  saddle-galls,  and  stilfasts,  are  a  species 
of  injury  and  sore,  which  are  in  many  cases  very  diffi- 
cult of  cure,  especially  saddle-galls  on  mules  that  have 
to  be  ridden  every  day.  One  of  the  best  remedies  for 
saddle  gall  is  to  heighten  the  saddle  up  as  much  as  pos- 
sible, and  bathe  the  back  with  cold  water  as  often  as 
an  opportunity  affords.  In  many  cases  this  will  drive 
the  fever  away  and  scatter  the  trouble  that  is  about  to 
take  place.  This,  however,  does  not  always  scatter,  for 
the  trouble  will  often  continue,  a  root  forming  in  the 
center  of  what  we  call  the  saddle-gall.  The  edges  of 
this  will  be  clear,  and  the  stilfast  hold  only  by  the 
root.  I  have  had  many  cases  of  this  kind  occur 
with  the  mule,  both  on  his  back-  and  neck,  mostly 
caused  on  the  latter  part  by  the  collar  being  too  loose. 
And  I  have  found  but  one  way  to  effectually  cure  them. 
Some  persons  advise  cutting,  which  I  think  is  too  tedi- 
ous and  painful  to  the  animal.  My  advice  is  to  take 
a  pair  of  pincers,  or  forceps  of  any  kind,  and  pull  it  out. 
Thts  done,  bathe  frequently  with  cold  water,  and  keep 
the  collar  or  saddle  as  much  free  of  the  sore  as  possible. 
This  will  do  more  towards  relieving  the  animal  and 
healing  the  injury  than  all  the  medicine  you  can  give. 
A  little  soothing  oil,  or  grease  free  from  salt,  may  be 
rubbed  lightly  on  the  parts  as  they  begin  to  heal.  This 
is  a  very  simple  but  effective  remedy. 

THKTJSH. 

This  is  another  trouble  with  which  the  mule  is  afflicted. 
Cut  away  the  parts  of  the  frog  that  seem  to  be  destroyed, 


THE   MULE.  91 

clean  tlie  parts  well  with  castile-soap,  and  apply  mu- 
riatic acid.  If  you  liave  not  this  at  hand,  a  little  tar 
mixed  with  salt,  and  placed  on  oakum  or  tow,  and  ap- 
plied, will  do  nearly  as  well.  Apply  this  every  day, 
keeping  the  parts  well  dressed,  and  the  feet  according 
to  directions  in  shoeing,  and  the  trouble  will  soon  dis- 
appear. 

CHEST   FOUNDERS. 

Mules  are  not  subject  to  this  disease.  Some  persons 
assert  that  they  are,  but  it  is  a  mistake.  These  persons 
mistake  for  founder  in  the  chest  what  is  nothing  more 
than  a  case  of  contraction  of  the  feet.  I  have  repeat- 
edly seen  veterinary  surgeons  connected  with  the  army, 
on  being  asked  what  was  the  trouble  with  a  mule,  look 
wise,  and  declare  the  complaint  chest  founder,  swelling 
of  the  shoulders,  &c.  I  was  inclined  to  put  some  faith 
in  the  wisdom  of  these  gentlemen,  until  Doctor  Braley, 
chief  veterinary  surgeon  of  the  department  of  Washing- 
ton, produced  the  most  convincing  proofs  that  it  was 
almost  an  impossibility  for  these  animals  to  become 
injured  in  the  shoulder.  "When  mules  become  sore  in 
front,  look  well  to  their  feet,  and  in  nine  cases  out  of 
ten,  you  will  lind  the  cause  of  the  trouble  there.  In 
very  many  cases  a  good  practical  shoer  can  remove 
the  trouble  by  proper  paring  and  shoeing. 

BLEEDING. 

It  was  always  a  subject  of  inquiry  with  me,  who 
originated  the  system  of  bleeding  ;  and  why  it  was  that 


92  THE   MULE. 

all  kinds  of  doctors  and  physicians  persist  in  taking  tlie 
stream  of  life  itself  from  the  system  in  order  to  preserve 
life.  In  the  case  of  General  Washington,  which  I  copy 
from  the  Independent  Chronicle  of  Boston,  January  6, 
1800,  the  editor,  using  "  James  Craik,  physician,  and 
Elisha  C.  Dick,  physician,"  as  authority,  states  that  a 
bleeder  was  procured  in  the  neighborhood,  who  took 
from  the  General's  arm  from  twelve  to  fourteen  ounces 
of  blood,  in  the  morning ;  and  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
same  day  was  bled  copiously  twice.  More  than  that, 
it  was  agreed  upon  by  these  same  enlightened  doctors, 
to  try  the  result  of  another  blood-letting,  by  which 
thirty-two  ounces  more  was  drawn.  And,  wonderful 
as  it  may  seem  to  the  intelligent  mind  at  this  day,  they 
state  that  all  this  was  done  without  the  slightest  alle- 
viation of  the  disease.  The  world  has  become  more  wise 
now,  and  experience  has  shown  how  ridiculous  this  sys- 
tem of  bleeding  was.  What  is  true  in  regard  to  the 
human  system  is  also  true  in  regard  to  the  animal. 
There  are  some  extreme  cases  in  which  I  have  no  doubt 
moderate  bleeding  might  render  relief.  But  these  cases 
are  so  few  that  it  should  only  be  suffered  to  be  done  by 
an  experienced,  careful,  and  skillful  person.  My  advice 
is,  avoid  it  in  all  cases  where  you  can. 

COLIC. 

The  mule  is  quite  subject  to  this  complaint.  It  is 
what  is  commonly  known  as  belly-ache.  Over  doses  of 
cold  water  will  produce  it.  There  is  nothing,  however, 
so  likely  to  produce  it  in  the  mule  as  changes  of  grain. 


THE   MULE.  93 

Musty  corn  will  also  produce  it,  and  should  never  be 
given  to  animals.  I  recollect,  in  1856,  when  I  was  in 
New  Mexico,  at  Fort  Union,  we  had  several  mules  die 
from  eating  what  is  termed  Spanish  or  Mexican  corn,  a 
small  blue  and  purplish  grain.  It  was  exceedingly 
hard  and  flinty,  and,  in  fact,  more  like  buckshot  than 
grain.  We  fed  about  four  quarts  of  this  to  the  mule, 
at  the  first  feed.  The  result  was,  they  swelled  up, 
began  to  pant,  look  round  at  their  sides,  sweat  above 
the  eyes  and  at  the  flanks.  Then  they  commenced  to 
roll,  spring  up  suddenly,  lie  down  again,  roll  and  try  to 
lie  on  their  backs.  Then  they  would  spring  up,  and 
after  standing  a  few  seconds,  fall  down,  and  groan,  and 
pant.  At  length  they  would  resign  themselves  to  what 
they  apparently  knew  to  be  their  fate,  and  die.  And 
yet,  singular  as  it  may  seem,  the  animal  could  be  accus- 
tomed to  this  grain  by  judicious  feeding  at  first. 

We  did  not  know  at  that  time  what  to  give  the  ani- 
mal to  relieve  or  cure  him ;  and  the  Government  lost 
hundreds  of  valuable  animals  through  our  want  of 
knowledge.  Whenever  these  violent  cases  appear,  get 
some  common  soap,  make  a  strong  suds  and  drench  the 
mule  with  it.  I  have  found  in  every  case  where  I  used 
it  that  the  mule  got  well.  It  is  the  alkali  in  the  soap 
that  neutralizes  the  gases.  There  is  another  good 
receipt,  and  it  is  generally  to  be  found  in  camp.  Take 
two  ounces  of  saleratus,  put  it  into  a  pint  of  water, 
shake  well,  and  then  drench  with  the  same.  Above 
all  things,  keep  whisky  and  othe>  stimulants  away,  as 
they  only  serve  to  aggravate  the  disease. 


94:  THE   MULE. 


PHYSICKING. 


This  is  another  of  those  imaginary  cures  resorted  to 
by  persons  having  charge  of  mules.  Yery  many  of 
these  persons  honestly  believe  that  it  is  necessary  to 
clean  the  animal  out  every  spring  with  large  doses  of 
poisonous  and  other  truck.  This,  they  say,  ought  to  be 
given  to  loosen  the  hide,  soften  the  hair,  &c.  In  my 
opinion  it  does  very  little  good.  If  his  dung  gets  dry, 
and  his  hair  hard  and  crispy,  give  him  bran  mashes 
mixed  with  his  grain,  and  a  teaspoonful  of  salt  at  each 
feed.  If  there  is  grass,  let  him  graze  a  few  hours  every 
day.  This  will  do  more  towards  softening  his  coat  and 
loosening  his  bowels  than  any  thing  else.  When  real 
disease  makes  its  appearance,  it  is  time  to  use  medi- 
cines ;  but  they  should  be  applied  by  some  one  who 
thoroughly  understands  them. 

STRINGHALT. 

This  sometimes  occurs  in  the  mule.  It  is  a  sudden, 
nervous,  quick  jerk  of  either  or  both  of  the  hind  legs. 
In  the  mule  it  frequently  shows  but  little  after  being 
worked  an  hour  or  so.  It  is  what  I  regard  as  unsound- 
ness, and  a  mule  badly  affected  with  it  is  generally  of 
but  little  use.  It  is  often  the  result  of  strains,  caused 
by  backing,  pulling  and  twisting,  and  heavy  falls.  You 
can  detect  it  in  its  slightest  form  by  turning  the  animal 
short  around  to  the  right  or  to  the  left.  Turn  him  in 
tlie  track  he  stands  in,  as  near  as  possible,  and  tlien 
back  him.     It'  he  has  it,  one  of  these  three  ways  will 


THE   MULE,  95 

develop  its  symptoms.  There  are  a  great  many  opin- 
ions as  to  the  soundness  or  unsoundness  of  an  animal 
afflicted  with  this  complaint.  If  I  had  now  a  good 
animal  afflicted  with  it,  the  pain  caused  to  my  feelings 
by  looking  at  it  would  be  a  serious  drawback. 

CEAIMP. 

I  have  now  under  my  charge  several  mules  that  are 
subject  to  this  complaint.  It  does  not  really  injure 
them  for  service,  but  it  is  very  disagreeable  to  those 
having  them  in  charge.  It  frequently  requires  from 
half  an  hour  to  two  hours  to  get  them  rubbed  so  as  the 
blood  gets  to  its  proper  circulation,  and  to  get  them  to 
walk  without  dragging  their  legs.  In  cases  where 
they  are  attacked  violently,  they  will  appear  to  lose  all 
use  of  their  legs.  I  have  known  cases  when  a  sudden 
stroke  with  a  light  piece  of  board,  so  as  to  cause  a  sur- 
prise, would  drive  it  away.  In  other  cases  sudden 
application  of  the  whip  would  have  the  same  effect. 

sPAvm. 

It  is  generally  believed  that  the  mule  does  not  inherit 
this  disease.  But  this  is  not  altogether  true.  Small, 
compact  mules,  bred  after  the  jack,  are  indeed  not 
subject  to  it.  On  the  contrary,  large  mules,  bred  from 
large,  coarse  mares,  are  very  frequently  afflicted  with 
it.  The  author  has  under  his  charge  at  the  present 
time  quite  a  number  of  those  kind  of  mules,  in  which 
this  disease  is  visible.     At  times,  when  w^orked  hard, 


96  THE   MULE. 

they  are  sore  and  lain»8.  The  only  thing  to  be  recom- 
mended in  this  case  is  careful  treatment,  and  as  much 
rest  at  intervals  as  it  is  possible  to  give  them.  Hand 
rubbing  and  application  of  stimulant  liniments,  or  tinc- 
ture of  arnica,  is  about  all  that  can  be  done.  The  old 
method  of  firing  and  blistering  only  puts  the  animal 
to  torture  and  the  owner  to  expense.  A  cure  can  never 
be  effected  through  it,  and  therefore  should  never  be 
tried. 

EIKGBONE. 

These  appear  on  the  same  kind  of  large,  bony  mules 
as  referred  to  in  cases  of  spavin,  and  are  incurable. 
They  can,  however,  be  relieved  by  the  same  process  as 
recommended  in  spavin.  Relief  can  also  be  afforded 
by  letting  the  heels  of  the  affected  feet  grow  down 
to  considerable  length,  or  shoeing  with  a  high-heeled 
shoe,  and  thus  taking  the  weight  or  strain  off  the 
injured  parts.  The  only  way  to  make  the  best  use  of 
an  animal  afflicted  with  this  disease,  is  to  abandon 
experiments  to  effect  a  cure,  as  they  will  only  be 
attended  with  expense  and  disappointment. 

MANGE. 

Mules  are  subject  to  this  disease  when  kept  in  large 
numbers,  as  in  the  army.  This  is  peculiarly  a  cuticle 
disease,  like  the  itch  in  the  human  system,  and  yields 
to  the  same  course  of  treatment.  A  mixture  of  sul- 
phur and  hog's  lard,  one  pint  of  the  latter  to 
two  of  the  former.     Rub    the  animal   all    over,    then 


THE   MULE.  97 

cover  with  a  blanket.  After  standing  two  days,  wash 
him  clean  with  soft-soap  and  water.  After  this  process 
has  been  gone  through,  keep  the  animal  blanketed  for 
a  few  days,  as  he  will  be  liable  to  take  cold.  Feed 
with  bran  mashes,  plenty  of  common  salt,  and  water. 
This  will  relieve  the  bowels  all  that  is  necessary,  and 
can  scarcely  fail  of  effecting  a  cnre.  Another  method, 
but  not  so  certain  in  its  effect,  is  to  make  a  decoction  of 
tobacco,  say  about  one  pound  of  the  stems  to  two  gal- 
lons of  water,  boiled  until  the  strength  is  extracted 
from  the  weed,  and  when  cool  enough,  bathe  the  mule 
well  with  it  from  head  to  foot,  let  him  dry  off,  and 
do  not  curry  him  for  a  day  or  two.  Then  curry  him 
well,  and  if  the  itching  appear  again,  repeat  the  bath- 
ing two  or  three  times,  and  it  will  produce  a  cure. 
The  same  treatment  will  apply  in  case  of  lice,  which 
frequently  occurs  where  mules  are  kept  in  large  num- 
bers. Mercury  should  never  be  used  in  any  form, 
internally  or  externally,  on  an  animal  so  much  expased 
as  the  mule. 

GEEASE-HEEL. 

Clean  the  parts  well  with  castile-soap  and  warm 
water.  As  soon  as  you  have  discovered  the  disease, 
stop  wetting  the  legs,  as  that  only  aggravates  it,  and 
use  ointment  made  from  the  following  substances : 
Powdered  charcoal,  two  ounces ;  lard  or  tallow,  four 
ounces  ;  sulphur,  two  ounces.  Mix  them  well  together, 
then  rub  the  ointment  in  well  with  your  hand  on  the 
affected  parts.     If  the  above  is  not  at  hand,  get  gun- 


98  THE   MULE. 

powder,  some  lard  or  tallow,  in  equal  parts,  and  apply 
in  the  same  manner.  If  the  animal  be  poor,  and  his 
system  need  toning  up,  give  him  plenty  of  nourishing 
food,  with  bran  mash  mixed  plentifully  with  the  grain. 
Add  a  teaspoonful  of  salt  two  or  three  times  a  day,  as 
it  will  aid  in  keeping  the  bowels  open.  If  the  stable 
bottoms,  or  floors,  or  yards  are  filthy,  see  that  they  are 
properly  cleaned,  as  filthiness  is  one  of  the  causes  of 
tliis  disease.  The  same  treatment  will  apply  to 
scratches,  as  they  are  the  same  disease  in  a  difierent 
form. 

To  avoid  scratches  and  grease-heel  during  the  winter, 
or  indeed  at  any  other  season,  the  hair  on  the  mule's 
heels  should  never  be  cut.  Kor  should  the  mud,  in 
winter  season,  be  washed  off,  but  allowed  to  dry  on  the 
animal's  legs,  and  tlien  rubbed  off  with  hay  or  straw. 
This  washing,  and  cutting  the  hair  off  the  legs,  leave 
them  without  any  protection,  and  is,  in  many  cases,  the 
cause  of  grease-heel  and  scratches. 

SHOES,  SHOEING,  AND   THE   FOOT. 

The  foot,  its  diseases,  and  how  to  shoe  it  properly, 
is  a  subject  much  discussed  among  horsemen.  Nearly 
every  farrier  and  blacksmith  has  a  way  of  his  own  for 
curing  diseased  feet,  and  shoeing.  ISTo  matter  how 
absurd  it  may  be,  he  will  insist  that  it  has  merits 
superior  to  all  others,  and  it  would  be  next  to  impossible 
to  convince  him  of  his  error.  Skillful  veterinarians 
now  understand  perfectly  all  the  diseases  peculiar  to 
the  foot,  and   the  means  of  effecting  a  cure.     They 


THE   MULE.  99 

understand,  also,  what  sort  of  shoe  is  needed  for  the 
feet  of  different  animals.  Latterly  a  number  of  shoes 
have  been  invented  and  patented,  all  professing  to  be 
exactly  what  is  wanted  to  relieve  and  cure  diseased  feet 
of  all  kinds.  One  man  has  a  shoe  he  calls  "  concave^'' 
and  says  it  will  cure  contraction,  corns,  thrush,  quarter- 
crack,  toe-crack,  &c.,  &c.  But  when  you  come  to  ex- 
amine it  closely,  you  will  find  it  nothing  more  than  a 
nicely  dressed  piece  of  iron,  made  almost  in  the  shape  of 
a  half  moon.  After  a  fair  trial,  however,  it  will  be 
found  of  no  more  virtue  in  curing  diseases  or  relieving 
the  animal  than  the  ordinary  shoe  used  by  a  country 
smithy.  Another  inventive  genius  springs  up  and 
asserts  that  he  has  discovered  a  shoe  that  will  cure  all 
sorts  of  diseased  feet;  and  brings  at  least  a  bushel 
basket  full  of  letters  from  persons  he  declares  to  be  in- 
terested in  the  horse,  confirming  what  he  has  said  of 
the  virtues  of  his  shoe.  But  a  short  trial  of  this  won- 
derful shoe  only  goes  to  show  how  little  these  persons 
understand  the  whole  subject,  and  how  easy  a  matter  it 
is  to  procure  letters '  recommending  what  they  have 
invented. 

Another  has  a  "  specific  method  "  for  shoeing,  which 
is  to  cut  away  the  toe  right  in  the  center  of  the  foot, 
cut  away  the  bars  on  the  inside  of  the  foot,  cut  and 
clean  away  all  around  on  the  inside  of  the  hoof,  then  to 
let  the  animal  stand  on  a  board  floor,  so  that  his  feet 
would  be  in  the  position  a  saucer  would  represent  with 
one  piece  broken  out  at  the  front  and  two  at  the  back. 
This  I  consider  the  most  inhuman  method  in  the  art 
of  shoeing.       Turn  this  saucer  upside  down  and  see 


100  THE   MULE. 

how  little  pressure  it  would  bear,  and  you  will  have 
some  idea  of  the  cruelty  of  applying  this  "  specific 
method."  Sometimes  bar-shoes  and  other  contrivances 
are  used,  to  keep  the  inside  of  the  foot  from  coming 
down.  But  why  do  this?  Why  not  get  at  once  a 
shoe  adapted  to  the  spreading  of  the  foot.  Tyrell's 
shoe  for  this  purpose  is  the  best  I  have  yet  seen.  We 
have  used  it  in  the  Government  service  for  two  years, 
and  experience  has  taught  me  that  it  has  advantages 
that  ought  not  to  be  overlooked.  But  even  this  shoe 
may  be  used  to  disadvantage  by  ignorant  hands.  In- 
deed, in  the  hands  of  a  blacksmith  who  prefers  "his 
own  way,"  some  kinds  of  feet  may  be  just  as  badly  in- 
jured by  it  as  others  are  benefited.  The  United  States 
Army  affords  the  largest  field  for  gaining  practical 
knowledge  concerning  the  diseases,  especially  of  the 
feet,  with  which  horses  and  mules  are  afi&icted.  During 
the  late  war,  when  so  little  care  was  given  to  animals 
in  the  field,  when  they  were  injured  in  every  con- 
ceivable manner,  and  by  all  sorts  of  accidents,  the 
veterinary  found  a  field  for  study  such  as  has  never 
been  opened  before. 

Experience  has  taught  me,  that  common  sense  is  one 
of  the  most  essential  things  in  the  treatment  of  a  horse's 
foot.  You  must  remember  that  horses'  feet  differ  as 
well  as  men's,  and  require  different  treatment,  espe- 
cially in  shoeing.  You  must  shoe  the  foot  according  to 
its  peculiarity  and  demands,  not  according  to  any 
specific  "  system  of  shoe."  Give  the  ground  surface 
a  level  bearing,  let  the  frog  come  to  the  ground,  and 
the  weight  of  the  mule  rest  on  tlie  frog  as  much  as  any 


TTIS   MULE.  101 

other  part  of  the  foot.  If  it  project  beyond  the  shoo, 
so  much  the  better.  That  is  what  it  was  made  for,  and 
to  catch  the  weight  on  an  elastic  principle.  Never, 
under  any  circumstances,  cut  it  away.  Put  two  nails 
in  the  shoe  on  each  side,  and  both  forward  of. the 
quarters,  and  one  in  the  toe,  directly  in  front  of  the 
foot.  Let  those  on  the  sides  be  an  inch  apart,  then 
you  will  be  sure  not  to  cut  and  tear  the  foot.  Let  the 
nails  and  nail-holes  be  small,  for  they  will  then  aid  in 
saving  the  foot.  It  will  still  further  aid  in  saving  it  by 
letting  the  nails  run  well  up  into  the  hoof,  for  that  keeps 
the  shoe  steadier  on  the  foot.  The  hoof  is  just  as 
thick  to  within  an  inch  of  the  top,  and  is  generally 
sounder,  and  of  a  better  substance,  than  it  is  at  the 
bottom.  Keep  the  first  reason  for  shoeing  apparent 
in  your  mind  always — that  you  only  shoe  your  mule 
because  his  feet  will  not  stand  the  roads  without  it. 
And  whenever  you  can,  shoe  him  with  a  shoe  exactly 
the  shape  of  his  foot.  Some  blacksmiths  will  insist  on 
a  shoe,  and  then  cutting  and  shaping  the  foot  to  it. 
The  first  or  central  surface  of  the  hoof,  made  hard  by 
the  animal's  own  peculiar  way  of  traveling,  indicates 
the  manner  in  which  he  should  be  shod.  All  the  art  in 
the  world  cannot  improve  this,  for  it  is  the  model  pre- 
pared by  nature.  Let  the  shoes  be  as  light  as  possible, 
and  without  calks  if  it  can  be  afforded,  as  the  mule 
always  travels  unsteady  on  them.  The  Goodenough 
shoe  is  far  superior  to  the  old  ^calked  shoe,  and  will 
answer  every  purpose  where  holding  is  necessary.  It  is 
also  good  in  mountainous  countries,  and  there  is  no 
danger  of  the  animal  calking  himself  with  it.     I  have 


102  THE  MIJLE. 

carefully  observed  the  different  effect  of  shoes,  while 
with  troops  on  the  march.  I  accompanied  the  Seventh 
Infantry,  in  1858,  in  its  march  to  Cedar  Yalley,  in 
Utah,  a  distance  of  fourteen  hundred  miles,  and  noticed 
that  scarcely  a  man  who  wore  regulation  shoes  had  a 
blister  on  his  feet,  while  the  civilians,  who  did  not,  were 
continually  falling  out,  and  dropping  to  the  rear,  from 
the  effects  of  narrow  and  improper  shoes  and  boots. 
The  same  is  the  case  with  the  animal.  The  foot  must 
have  something  flat  and  broad  to  bear  on.  The  first 
care  of  those  having  charge  of  mules,  should  be  to  see 
that  their  feet  are  kept  in  as  near  a  natural  state  as 
possible.  Then,  if  all  the  laws  of  nature  be  observed, 
and  strictly  obeyed,  the  animal's  feet  will  last  as  long, 
and  be  as  sound  in  his  domestic  state  as  he  would  be  in. 
a  state  of  nature. 

The  most  ordinary  observer  will  soon  find  that  the 
outer  portion  or  covering  of  the  mule's  foot  possesses 
very  little  animal  life,  and  has  no  sensibility,  like  the 
hair  or  covering  of  the  body.  Indeed,  the  foot  of  the 
horse  and  mule  is  a  dense  block  of  horn,  and  must 
therefore  be  influenced  and  governed  by  certain  chemical 
laws,  which  control  the  elements  that  come  in  contact 
with  it.  Hence  it  was  that  the  feet  of  these  animals 
was  made  to  bear  on  the  hard  ground,  and  to  be  wet 
naturally  every  time  the  horse  drank.  Drought  and 
heat  will  contract  and  make  hard  and  brittle  the  sub- 
stance of  which  the  feet  is  composed ;  while  on  the 
other  hand  cooling  and  moisture  will  expand  it,  and 
render  it  pliable  and  soft.  JSTature  has  provided  every- 
thing necessary  to  preserve  and  protect  this  foot,  while 


THE   MULE.  103 

the  animal  is  in  a  natural  state  ;  but  when  brouglit  into 
domestic  use,  it  requires  the  good  sense  of  man,  whose 
servant  he  is,  to  artificially  employ  those  means  which 
nature  has  provided,  to  keep  it  perfectly  healthy. 

When,  then,  the  foot  is  in  a  healthy  state,  wet  it  at 
least  twice  a  day ;  and  do  not  be  content  with  merely 
throwing  cold  water  on  the  outside,  for  the  foot  takes 
in  very  little  if  any  moisture  through  the  wall.  In  short, 
it  absorbs  moisture  most  through  the  frog  and  solo, 
particularly  in  the  region  where  the  sole  joins  the  wall. 
This,  if  covered  by  a  tight  shoe,  closes  the  medium,  and 
prevents  the  proper  supply.  Horses  that  are  shod 
should  be  allowed  to  stand  in  moist  places  as  much  as 
possible.  Use  clay  or  loam  floors,  especially  if  the 
horse  has  to  stand  much  of  his  time.  Stone  or  brick  is 
the  next  best,  as  the  foot  of  the  animal  will  absorb 
moisture  from  either  of  these.  Dry  pine  planks  are 
the  very  worst,  because  they  attract  moisture  from  the 
horse's  foot.  Where  animals  have  to  stand  idle  much 
of  the  time,  keep  their  feet  well  stuffed  with  cow  ma- 
nure at  night.  That  is  the  best  and  cheapest  preserva- 
tive of  the  feet  that  you  can  use. 

ADVICE   TO   BLACKSMITHS. 

Let  me  enjoin  you,  for  humanity's  sake,  that  when 
you  first  undertake  to  shoe  a  young  animal,  you  will 
not  forget  the  value  of  kind  treatment.  Keep  its  head 
turned  away  from  the  glaring  fije,  the  clinking  anvil, 
(fee,  (fee.  Let  the  man  whom  he  has  been  accustomed 
to,  the  groom  or  owner,  stand  at  his  head,  and  talk  to 
him  kindly.     When   you  approach  him  for  the  first 


104  THE   MULE. 

time,  let  it  be  without  those  implements  you  are  to  use 
in  his  shoeing.  Speak  to  him  gently,  then  take  up  his 
foot.  If  he  refuse  to  let  you  do  this,  let  the  person 
having  him  in  charge  do  it.  A  young  animal  will 
allow  this  with  a  person  he  is  accustomed  to,  when  he 
will  repel  a  stranger.  By  treating  him  kindly  you  can 
make  him  understand  what  is  wanted;  by  abusing 
him  you  will  only  frighten  him  into  obstinacy.  When^ 
you  have  got  the  animal  under  perfect  subjection,  ex- 
amine the  foot  carefully,  and  you  will  find  the  heels,  at 
the  back  part  of  the  frog,  entirely  free  from  that  mem- 
ber, which  is  soft  and  spongy.  When  the  foot  is  down, 
resting  on  the  ground,  grasp  the  heels  in  your  strong 
hand,  press  them  inwards  towards  the  frog,  and  you 
wall  immediately  find  that  they  will  yield.  You  will 
then  see  that  what  yields  so  easily  to  the  mere  pressure 
of  the  hand  will  expand  and  spread  out  when  the  weight 
of  the  body  is  thrown  on  it.  This  should  give  you  an 
idea  of  what  you  have  to  do  in  shoeing  that  foot,  and 
your  practical  knowledge  should  stand  you  well  in  an 
argument  with  any  of  those  "learned  professors,"  who 
declare  the  foot  of  the  mule  does  not  expand  or  contract. 
In  truth  it  is  one  of  its  necessary  conditions.  After  being 
a  long  time  badly  shod,  nearly  or  all  of  this  necessary 
principle  of  the  foot  will  be  lost.  You  should  there- 
fore study  to  preserve  it.  And  here  let  me  give  you 
what  little  aid  experience  has  enabled  me  to  do.  You 
will  observe  the  ground  surface  of  the  foot,  no  matter 
how  high  the  arch  may  be,  to  be  at  least  half  an  inch 
wide,  and  sometimes  more  than  an  inch,  with  the  heels 
spread  out  at  the  outside  quarter.     Do  not  cut  away 


THE   MULE.  105 

this  important  brace.  It  is  as  necessary  to  tiie  heel  of 
the  animal,  to  guard  him  against  lateral  motion,  on 
which  the  whole  of  the  above  structure  depends,  as  the 
toes  are  to  the  human  being.  Curve  the  outside  of  the 
shoe  nearly  to  fit  the  foot,  and  you  will  find  the  inside 
heel  a  little  straighter,  especially  if  the  animal  be  nar- 
row-breasted, and  the  feet  stand  close  together.  iN'ature 
has  provided  this  safeguard  to  prevent  its  striking  the 
opposite  leg.  After  the  shoe  is  prepared  to  fit  the  foot, 
as  I  have  before  described,  rasp  the  bottom  level — it 
will  be  found  nearly  so.  Do  not  put  a  knife  to  the  sole 
or  the  frog.  Tlie  sole  of  the  foot,  remember,  is  its  life, 
and  the  frog  its  defender.  In  punching  the  shoe,  two 
nail-holes  on  a  side,  on  a  foot  like  this,  are  sufficient  to 
hold  on  a  shoe.  Three  may  be  used,  if  set  in  their 
proper  places,  without  injury  to  the  foot.  Practice  will 
teach  you  that  any  more  nailing  than  this  is  unneces- 
sary. I  have  used  two  nails  on  a  side  on  an  animal 
with  not  the  best  of  a  foot,  and  very  high  action,  and  he 
has  worn  them  entirely  out  without  throwing  either  of 
them  off.  Previous  to  punching  the  shoe,  observe  the 
grain  of  the  foot.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  fibres  of  the 
hoof  run  from  the  top  of  the  foot,  or  coronary  border, 
towards  the  toe,  in  most  feet,  at  an  angle  of  about 
forty-five  degrees.  It  will  be  plain,  then,  that  if  the 
nails  are  driven  with  the  grain  of  the  horn,  they  will 
drive  much  easier,  and  hold  better,  and  be  less  liable 
to  cut  and  crack  the  fibers. 

Another  benefit  can  be  derived  from  this  process  of 
nailing.  "When  the  foot  comes  to  the  ground,  the  nails 
act  as  a  brace  to  keep  the  foot  from  slipping  forward 

5* 


106  THE   MTTLE. 

off  the  sboe.  This  renders  that  very  ingenious  foot 
destroyer,  the  toe-clip,  unnecessary.  Then,  in  punching 
the  shoe,  hold  the  top  of  the  pritchell  toward  the  heel 
of  the  shoe,  so  as  to  get  the  hole  in  the  shoe  on  an 
angle  with  the  grain  of  the  hoof.  Punch  the  holes  large 
enough,  so  that  the  nails  will  not  hind  in  the  shoe,  nor 
require  unnecessary  hammering  or  bruising  of  the  foot 
to  get  them  up  to  their  proper  place.  Prepare  the  nails 
well,  point  them  thin  and  narrow ;  and,  as  I  have  said 
before,  use  as  small  a  nail  as  possible. 

When  you  proceed  to  nail  on  the  shoe,  take  a  slight 
hold  at  the  bottom,  so  as  to  be  sure  that  the  nail  starts 
in  the  wall  of  the  foot  instead  of  the  sole.  Let  it  come 
out  as  high  up  as  possible.  Tou  need  not  be  afraid  of 
pricking  with  nails  set  in  this  way,  as  the  wall  of  the 
foot  is  as  thick,  until  you  get  within  half  an  inch  of  the 
top,  as  it  is  where  you  set  the  naiJ.  l^ails  driven  in  this 
way  injure  the  feet  less,  hold  on  longer,  and  are  stronger 
than  when  driven  in  any  other  way*.  If  you  have  any 
doubt  of  this,  test  it  in  this  manner :  when  you  take 
off  an  old  shoe  to  set  a  new  one,  and  cut  the  clinches 
(which  should  be  done  in  all  cases),  you  will  find  the 
old  nail  and  the  clinches  not  started  up ;  and  in  draw- 
ing the  nail  out  you  will  also  find  the  foot  not  slipped 
or  cracked ;  and  that  the  horn  binds  the  nail  until  it  is 
entirely  drawn  out.  Indeed,  I  have  known  the  hole  to 
almost  close  as  the  nail  left  it. 

Set  the  two  front  nails  well  towards  the  toe,  so  as 
not  to  be  more  than  two  inches  apart  when  measured 
across  the  bottom  of  the  foot.  Let  the  next  two  divide 
the  distance  from  that  to  the  heel,  so  as  to  leave  from 


THE   MULE.  107 

two  to  two  and  a  lialf  inches  free  of  nails,  as  the 
form  of  the  foot  may  allow.  Lastly,  before  nailing 
on  the  shoe,  and  while  it  is  cold  on  the  anvil,  strike 
the  surface  that  comes  next  to  the  foot  on  the  out- 
side, a  few  blows  with  the  hammer,  right  across  the 
heels,  and  see  also  that  the  outside  of  the  heels  is  a 
shade  lowest,  so  that  the  animal  in  throwing  his  weight 
upon  them  will  spread  out,  and  not  pinch  in  his  feet. 


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